Little Jeremy Fisher story about day pond half disappeared (7)

I believe the answer is:

tadpole

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'little jeremy fisher story' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'about day pond half disappeared' is the wordplay.
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'day' becomes 'd' (abbreviation for day).
'half' indicates taking half.
'disappeared' becomes 'tale' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'pond' with half the letters taken is 'po'.
'd'+'po'='dpo'
'dpo' placed within 'tale' is 'TADPOLE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tadpole that I've seen before include "Immature toad or frog" , "Frog in the making" , "Legless creature" , "wriggler?" , "Pre-frog form" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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