When I was a boy
my friend James and I played target practice
with a bunch of frogs in a little pond.

He handed me a rock and showed me how to throw it.




Then, he found a bigger rock and threw it at a frog perched on a lily pad.


The frog hopped away in the nick of time...




But when I threw my rock,
I hit my target.

“They explode if you hit them!” James said, “did you see that?!”

I was excited, they popped like little balloons.

“Here,” he said, handing me another, larger stone, “try this one...”




I ran to find my mother, wanting to show her how true I could throw.
When I found her, I told her what I had done, and she scolded me,
“You hit those poor frogs with rocks?

Do you realize you killed those innocent little things?”

I started to cry...