SANDISFIELD - The slight, towheaded boy lovingly clutched the wooden White Owl cigar box with grass sticking out of the sides. He held the box in front of him with both hands and was careful not to shake it.

A group of about a dozen children huddled around a large aquarium full of grunting frogs, which the Cormier children were renting for 25 cents each. The towheaded boy walked over and silently eyed the competition in the tank.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, the annual frog jumping contest began at the Sandisfield Bicentennial Country Fair. Raymond Cormier, with black bowler, umbrella and measuring tape, called the shots as about 50 onlookers pressed together in the 80-degree heat and humidity to watch the amphibians' acrobatic feats.

The human trainers, ranging in age from 3 to 40, lined up to give the names to Cormier's assistant, who dutifully recorded them and the distance their frogs jumped.

About 15 trainers had placed their frogs on the tin can starting point, nudging and prodding the animals' hind quarters until a cheer went up from the crowd and the frogs did their thing - usually off to the left or the right of the crowd.

Then it was the little towheaded boy's turn. Still silent, he walked up to the starting point, placed the wooden box on the ground and very carefully opened it, revealing a two-inch tree frog inside.

The boy put the frog on the tin can. And the feisty creature immediately jumped about two-feet to the right of the crowd. "That's a real jumper you got there," Cormier said. The boy leaped after the frog, pouncing on it. But it was too late. The mutilated little animal lay motionless on the ground, looking like a biology lab experiment.

The boy had squashed it. The boy stared at the frog, not quite believing what he had done. He didn't cry or say anything.

"Oh, why don't you go and pick out another frog from the tank," Cormier said consolingly. "You can have any frog you want for nothing."

The boy went to the aquarium and picked out a fat bull frog. But he put it back and never did re-enter the competition.

"Who was that boy?" a reporter asked. No one remembered his name. The reporter could not find the boy either during the rest of the frog competition or during the Maypole dances immediately afterward. Meanwhile, the frog jumping competition continued and 38 contestants in all raced their animals against Cormier's tape measure.

At the end, 40-year-old Peter Cordani of Torrington, Conn., emerged victorious, winning the first-place prize of $5. His frog, Torrington, jumped 68 inches. Thomas Cormier, 8, of Beach Plain Road, won the $3 second prize. His frog, George, jumped 66-1/2 inches. Cordani's 7-year-old daughter, Nicole, placed third, winning $2, when her frog, Fred, leaped 65 inches.