Part 6 (1/2)
”Oh, please let us go!” cried Susie, with tears in her eyes.
”Oh, yes, do; and I'll give you this half of a cookie I have left,”
spoke Jennie kindly.
”I don't want your cookie, I want you,” sang the alligator, as if he were reciting a song. ”I'm going to eat you both!”
Then he held them still tighter in his claws, and fairly glared at them from out of his big eyes.
”I'm going to eat you all up!” he growled, ”but the trouble is I don't know which one to eat first. I guess I'll eat you,” and he made a motion toward Susie. She screamed, and then the alligator changed his mind.
”No, I guess I'll eat you,” and he opened his mouth for Jennie. Then he changed his mind again, and he didn't know what to do. But, of course, this made Jennie and Susie feel very nervous and also a big word called apprehensive, which is the same thing.
”Oh, help! Help! Will no one help us?” cried Susie at last.
”No, I guess no one will,” spoke the alligator, real mean and saucy like.
But he was mistaken. At that moment, hopping through the woods was Bawly No-Tail, wearing his paper soldier hat. He heard Susie call, and up he marched, like the brave soldier frog boy that he was. Through the holes in the bushes he could see the big alligator, and he saw Susie and Jennie held fast in his claws.
”Oh, I can never fight that savage creature all alone,” thought Bawly.
”I must make him believe that a whole army of soldiers is coming at him.”
So Bawly hid behind a tree, where the alligator couldn't find him, and the frog boy beat on a hollow log with a stick as if it were a drum.
Then he blew out his cheeks, whistling, and made a noise like a fife.
Then he aimed his wooden gun and cried: ”Bang! Bang! Bung! Bung!” just as if the wooden gun had powder in it. Next Bawly waved his cap with the feather in it, and the alligator heard all this, and he saw the waving soldier cap, and he, surely enough, thought a whole big army was coming after him.
”I forgot something,” the alligator suddenly cried, as he let go of Susie and Jennie. ”I have to go to the dentist's to get a tooth filled,”
and away that alligator scrambled through the woods as fast as he could go, taking his tail with him. So that's how Bawly saved Susie and Jennie, and very thankful they were to him, and if they had had any cookies left they would have given him two or sixteen, I guess.
Now if our gas stove doesn't go out and dance in the middle of the back yard and scare the cook, so she can't bake a rice-pudding pie-cake, I'll tell you next about Grandpa Croaker and the umbrella.
STORY IX
GRANDPA CROAKER AND THE UMBRELLA
One day, as Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, was coming home from school he thought of a very hard word he had had to spell in cla.s.s that afternoon.
It began with a ”C,” and the next letter was ”A” and the next one was ”T”-CAT-and what do you think? Why Bully said it spelled ”Kitten,” and just for that he had to write the word on his slate forty-'leven times, so he'd remember it next day.
”I guess I won't forget it again in a hurry,” thought Bully as he hopped along with his books in a strap over his shoulder. ”C-a-t spells-” And just then he heard a funny noise in the bushes, and he stopped short, as Grandfather Goosey Gander's clock did, when Jimmy Wibblewobble poured mola.s.ses in it. Bully looked all around to see what the noise was. ”For it might be that alligator, or the Pelican bird,” he whispered to himself.
Just then he heard a jolly laugh, and his brother Bawly hopped out from under a cabbage leaf.
”Did I scare you, Bully?” asked Bawly, as he scratched his right ear with his left foot.
”A little,” said Bully, turning a somersault to get over being frightened.
”Well, I didn't mean to, and I won't do it again. But now that you are out of school, come on, let's go have a game of ball. It'll be lots of fun,” went on Bawly.
So the two brothers hopped off, and found Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels, and Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, and some other animal friends, and they had a fine game, and Bawly made a home run.