Doo West to Toadstool by Herb West McAllister
The adventure begins one April morning in 1892. Froggy Doo informs his friends B. J. Crow, Alligator, and Owl that he intends to escape him humdrum life of gathering flies and bugs and travel to Toadstool, Arizona, to find his fame and fortune. Despite the ridicule of his friends, Froggy become a stowaway on a stagecoach headed to St Louis. Froggy’s first heroic deed, though accidental, is helping with the apprehension of a stagecoach robber. His heroism is short lived. When the coach reaches St, Louis he is first praised but then arrested for having no ticket and serves a short sentence in jail. However, the Coachman and the Guard help Froggy escape and give him peanut butter sandwiches and a large white horse. Froggy christens his gallant steed Charles. Now the frog has a companion. He can share his plans and fears; the conversation livens the tempo of the story. As Charles and Froggy make their way toward Toadstool, they have no idea that an enormous buzzard is following them. This creature is an accomplice to One-Eyed McMean, one of the most feared outlaws in the territory. When the two travelers reach Toadstool, they learn McMean has shot and killed the Marshal. Subsequently, Froggy—attired in battered top hat, torn spats, and dusty cape—is sworn in as the new Marshall. Froggy wins his first confrontation with the outlaw McMean who swears to get even and and make the Frog Marshall very very sorry. When One-Eyed Jack steals the payroll for Toadstool, the action accelerates. The Frog Marshall and Charles track the bandit first to Skull Rock then to a nearby ghost town. In the usual haste, Froggy crashes into a room where McMean is counting money. McMean drags the terrified frog across the floor, throws him into a corner, and pokes the muzzles of his pistols into Froggy’s face. Gallant steed Charles appears at the window in a veil of curtains to distract McMean long enough so the outlaw can be stubbed. When the Frog Marshall and Charles triumphantly enter Toadstool with a bound and gagged McMean, the townspeople crowd around the procession and shout and cheer. With the infamous bandit formally charged and jailed, Froggy decides to resign his high post and return to his home on Walden Pond. As they leave Toadstool, Charles trots briskly down Main Street while Froggy, as always, shouts orders and waves his cane. On the journey home, days and weeks spin quickly by. Finally Froggy gazes upon the countryside of his boyhood. However, when he and Charles arrive at Doo Manor, Froggy discovers his friends are gone. They are following his example of seeking fame and fortune in the Wild West and have left a note inviting him to join them in San Francisco. Of course, Froggy is excited to further prove himself heroic. “Hooray Charles! Let’s go, boy! Make haste! No time to waste! Onward to San Francisco!”
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