Say “Hi” to Hyla

By Unknown Author - Canadice Chronicle

March 1990

1

The Hyla-Crucifera Frog.

One of nature’s small creatures greets us each spring from ponds, swamps and marshes. It bears a small cross on its back. We call it a spring peeper.

This frog measures about an inch long. It comes to the wetlands to begin a new generation. Each female lays about 1,000 eggs which become tadpoles. In July, the tadpoles become frogs.

Each male frog has a sac on its throat. The sac produces the shrill, insistent piping note of the spring peeper. When many peepers call in chorus, the noise is almost deafening at close range.

This amphibian’s proper name is Hyla for frog and Crucifera for cross-bearing, for the mark on its back.

Like the Canadian geese, it is a welcome harbinger of the warm weather soon to come.

Two Rough Strangers

By an Unknown Author - Canadice Chronicle

February 1990

Two rough strangers sought lodging at a lonely farmhouse on Lawrence Hill Road, back in the old days. The young couple fed them and gave them lodging. During the evening the young couple revealed that this was their last night at home: tomorrow they and their small children would be evicted in the wintery weather because they fell behind in the mortgage.

The two rough strangers were sympathetic. How much was owed? $500 the young couple said. Promptly one of the strangers opened his wallet, peeled off five hundred-dollar bills and gave them to the young couple.

Be sure to get a receipt, they cautioned.

The next morning, Scrooge showed up at the house, demanding his money. To his surprise he got it and issued a receipt.

On his way back to Canandaigua Scrooge was bushwhacked on Burch Hill by two rough strangers, who then placed the money in the wallet from which it so recently left.