“All this time Mr.  ’Gator was a great deal more interested in making himself comfortable than he was in those eggs.  He had picked out a place where all day long Mr. Sun poured down his warmest rays, and he had dug a place to sprawl out in comfortably.  The sand he had thrown in a pile at one side.  When Mrs.  ’Gator went to consult Mr.  ’Gator about those precious eggs and her worries when the cool of evening had come, she happened to put one foot in that loose pile of sand, and she found that while the sand on the outside was already cool, that down inside the pile was still warm.  A clever idea came to her like a flash.

“First she sent Mr.  ’Gator into the water to get his supper.  Then she scooped a hole in that pile of warm sand, and in it she put her precious eggs and carefully covered them up with sand.  When this was done she stretched out close by to keep watch and see that nothing disturbed those treasures.  That was a very anxious night for Mrs.  ’Gator.  The sand on which she lay grew very cool.  When at last day came and Mr. Sun once more began to shine, she opened that pile of sand and great was her joy to find that inside it was still warm.  When Mr.  ’Gator came crawling out of the water to spend the day in that comfortable bed he had dug, she chased him away and was so cross that he went off grumbling and dug another bed.  Mrs.  ’Gator waited until Mr. Sun had made the sand very warm indeed, and then she made a great mound of it, and in the middle of it were her precious eggs.  Night and day she kept guard, and all the time she worried lest those eggs should not be warm enough.  Then one day twenty baby ’Gators dug their way out of that mound of sand.  Yes, Sir, they did.

“All this happened long, long ago when the world was young, and ever since then ’Gators have lived only way down south, where it is very warm and where Mr. Sun will hatch their eggs for them.  And today it is done just as I’ve told you, for I’ve seen with my own eyes Mrs.  ’Gator build her nest, cover her eggs, and then lie around while Mr. Sun did the work for her.  What do you think of that?”

“I think that if you hadn’t told me that you had seen it with your own eyes, Mrs. Quack, I should think it a fairy story,” replied Peter.

VIII

WHERE MR. QUACK GOT HIS WEBBED FEET

Twice every year, in the early spring and in the late fall, Peter Rabbit watches the Smiling Pool with a great deal of eagerness.  Can you guess why?  It is because two very good friends of Peter’s are in the habit of stopping there for a few days for rest and refreshment before continuing the long journey which they are obliged to make.  They are Mr. and Mrs. Quack, the Mallard Ducks.  Peter is very fond of them, and when the time for their arrival draws near, Peter watches for them with a great deal of anxiety.  You see they have told him something of the terrible dangers which they always encounter on these long journeys, and so Peter is always afraid that something terrible may have happened to them, and it is a great relief when he finds them swimming about in the Smiling Pool.