Off they started, and Edna wasn’t much afraid.  When they were about halfway across, and she felt real glad that she would soon see her grandmother, she said: 

“Oh, I guess I’m brave enough to look at the water now.  I think I’m not afraid with you, Curly Tail.”

“All right,” spoke the little piggie boy, and he was just going to tell the mousie girl to look down if she wanted to, when, all at once, after the boat, with his big jaws open, and his tongue going over his teeth like a nutmeg grater, came the bad skillery-scalery old alligator, with a double hump on his tail.

“Oh, my!” thought Curly Tail.  “If she looks down now, and sees that alligator, she’ll surely be so afraid that she’ll faint, and maybe fall into the water, and then I’ll have to jump in to save her, and the alligator will get us both.  What shall I do?”

Well, the mousie girl was just going to look down, and she would surely have seen the ’gator, when Curly Tail cried: 

“Don’t look!  Don’t look!  Oh, lobster salad! don’t look!”

“Why not?” asked the mousie girl.

“Because—­because it’s—­it’s a surprise!” was all Curly could think of to say.

“Oh, if it’s a surprise I must surely look!” said the mousie girl.  “I just love surprises!”

“I guess she won’t like this kind!” thought Curly Tail, but what he said was: 

“Quick!  Tie your handkerchief over your eyes, and make believe you are playing blind man’s bluff.  Then you can’t look until it’s time.  Quick!”

So the mousie girl, whose name was Edna, did as Curly Tail told her.  She blinded her eyes, and then, the piggie boy knew she would not see the ’gator.  On came the ferocious creature, ready to swallow the boat, Curly Tail and little afraid girl all at once.  But Curly Tail just stuck the push pole down the alligator’s throat, and that made the ’gator so angry that he lashed out with his tail, made a big wave, and that washed the boat and the piggie boy and the mousie girl safely up on shore.  And then they were all right, for on dry land they could run faster than the ’gator could.

“Where’s the surprise?” asked Edna, as she took off the handkerchief.

“There he goes,” said Curly Tail, showing her the alligator, who was swimming away, and Edna was glad she had not seen it when on the boat or she knew she surely would have fainted.  Then she went on to her grandmother’s, after thanking Curly Tail, and the little piggie boy went back to the bungalow.

And on the next page, if the boys don’t take my cocoanut cake for a football and roll it up hill, I’ll tell you about the piggies and the dinner party.

STORY XXV

THE PIGGIES AT THE PARTY

One day a nice lady stopped in front of the house where lived Curly and Floppy Twistytail, the two piggie boys, and called to them as they were playing football in the yard.