peter rabbit and mrs. quack the mallard duck are great friends. they have been great friends ever since peter tried to help mrs. quack when she and mr. quack had spent a whole summer on a little pond hidden deep in the green forest because mr. quack had a broken wing and so he and mrs. quack simply couldn't keep on to their home in the far north for which they had started. during that long summer peter had become very well acquainted with them. in fact he visited them very often, for as you know, peter is simply brimming over with curiosity, and there were wonderful things which mr. and mrs. quack could tell him, for they are great travelers.
now once, as mrs. quack was telling peter about the far-away southland where she and mr. quack and many other birds spend each winter, she mentioned old ally the 'gator. people who live where he does call him just 'gator, but you and i would call him alligator.
at the mention of old ally, all peter's curiosity was awakened, for mrs. quack had said that foolish young ducks sometimes mistook him for an old log floating in the water and didn't find out the difference until his great mouth flew open and he swallowed them whole. at that peter's eyes threatened to pop right out of his head and every time he visited that little pond he pestered mrs. quack with questions about old ally the 'gator and mrs. 'gator. it seemed as if he couldn't think of anything else. and when mrs. quack just happened to mention that little 'gators are hatched from eggs just as her own children are, it was almost too much for peter to believe.
"what?" he squealed, hopping up and down in excitement. "do you mean to tell me that anything as big as old ally, big enough to swallow you whole, can come from an egg? i don't believe it! besides, only birds lay eggs."
"quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,
peter, you must take that back!"
cried mrs. quack.
"why must i take it back?" demanded peter.
"because as usual you've let your tongue run loose, and that is a bad habit, peter. it certainly is a bad habit. how about the snake family?"
"oh!" said peter, looking very foolish. "i forgot all about the snakes. they do lay eggs."
"and how about spotty the turtle? didn't he come from an egg?" persisted mrs. quack.
peter looked more foolish than before, if that were possible. "y-e-s," he replied slowly and reluctantly.
"then don't be so quick to doubt a thing just because you've never seen it," retorted mrs. quack. "i've seen mrs. 'gator build her nest more than once, and i've seen her eggs, and i've seen the baby 'gators; and what is more, i'm not in the habit of telling things that i don't know are so."
"i beg your pardon, mrs. quack." peter was very humble. "i do indeed. please forgive me. is—is mrs. 'gator's nest at all like yours?"
peter seemed so truly sorry for having doubted her that mrs. quack recovered her good nature at once. "no," said she, "it isn't. if i hadn't seen her make it, i wouldn't have known it was a nest. you see, one spring i got hurt so that i couldn't take my usual long journey to the far north and had to spend the summer way down in the southland where i always lived in the winter, and that is how i happened to learn about mrs. 'gator's nest and eggs and a lot of other things. mrs. 'gator is lazy, but she is smart. she's smart enough to make mr. sun do her work. what do you think of that?"
right away peter was all excitement. you see, that sounded as if there might be a story behind it. "i never have heard of such a thing!" he cried. "how did she learn to do such a smart thing as that? of course i don't for a minute believe that she herself discovered a way to get mr. sun to work for her. probably it was her ever-so-great-grandmother who first did it. isn't that so, mrs. quack?"
mrs. quack nodded. "you've guessed it, peter," said she. "it all happened way, way back in the days when the world was young."
"tell me about it! please, please tell me about it, mrs. quack, and the first chance i get, i'll do something for you," begged peter.
mrs. quack carefully went over all her feathers to see that every one was in place, for she is very particular about how she looks. when she was quite satisfied, she turned to peter, fidgeting on the bank.
"way back in the days when the world was young," said she, "old mother nature made the first alligators before she made the first birds, or the first animals, so old ally and mrs. 'gator, who live way down south now, belong to a very old family and are proud of it. in the beginning of things there was very little dry land, as you may have heard, so old mr. and mrs. 'gator, who of course were not old then, were made to live in the water with the fish. old mother nature was experimenting then. she was planning to make a great deal more land, and she wanted living creatures on it, so she gave the 'gators legs and feet instead of fins, and lungs to breathe air instead of gills for breathing in the water as fish do. then, having many other things to attend to, she told them they would have to take care of themselves, and went about her business.
"it didn't take mr. and mrs. 'gator long to discover that their legs were not of much use in the water, for they used their powerful tails for swimming. then one day mrs. 'gator crawled out on land and right away discovered what those legs were for. she could go on dry land while fishes could not. it didn't take her long to find out that nothing was quite so fine as a sun-bath, as she lay stretched out on the bank, so she and mr. 'gator spent most of their time on sunny days taking sun-baths.
"one day old mother nature came along and whispered a wonderful secret to mrs. 'gator. 'i am going to give you some eggs,' whispered old mother nature, 'some eggs of your very own, and if you watch over them and keep them warm, out of each one a baby 'gator will some day creep. but if you let those eggs get cold, there will be no babies. don't forget that you must keep them warm.'
"old mother nature was as good as her word. she gave mrs. 'gator twenty beautiful white eggs, and mrs. 'gator was perfectly happy. those eggs were the most precious things in all the great world. it seemed as if she never would grow tired of looking at them and admiring them and of dreaming of the day when her babies should come out of them. it was very pleasant to lie there in the sun and dream of the babies to come from those wonderful eggs. suddenly, right into the midst of those pleasant dreams, broke the memory of what old mother nature had said about keeping those eggs warm. all in a twinkling happiness was turned to worry.
"'what can i do? what can i do?' mrs. 'gator kept saying over and over. 'however can i keep them warm when mr. sun goes to bed at night? oh, dear! oh, dear! my beautiful eggs never, never will turn to darling babies! what can i do?'
"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.
