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 noth