That was what they were used to in their native lands.

So Slider had a warm, sunny place, and now Teddy took the scaly creature
out of the tank and put him on a box, where the sun could shine on the
long-tailed fellow.

As it happened, there was a long, smooth board resting on the upper edge
of this box and extending down to the barn floor. Teddy had laid the
board slanting fashion on the box when he was making room for the cage of
Jack, the monkey.

For a little while, after he had been placed in the warm sun on top of
the box, the alligator remained quiet, slowly blinking his eyes. Then he
began to crawl.

"That isn't much of a trick," declared Janet.

"Oh, I haven't started to teach him a trick yet," her brother answered.
"I'm trying to think what an alligator can do best."

But Slider, as he was called, because he seemed to slide around in such a
slow, easy fashion, took matters into his own claws, so to speak.

He crawled around on his box top and then managed to clamber up on the
slanting board, one edge of which rested on the box.

"I wonder if he is going to slide down-hill," said Janet in a low voice,
as if she did not want to disturb the little alligator.

And then, just as if he had made up his mind to do that very thing,
Slider wiggled along until he was only holding to the edge of the slanting
board by his two hind feet, while his long tail was only partly on the
box. A moment later, giving himself a hitch like a boy getting his sled
over the top of the hill, Slider went sliding down the smooth, slanting
board.

Down he slid until he reached the barn floor, and as there was some
smooth straw at the point where the board rested, Slider slid across this
straw for several feet.

"Oh, did you see that?" cried Janet.

"See it? I should say I did!" cried Teddy. "Slider slid all right! That's
going to be his trick! I'll make a longer board slide, and I'll put the
lower end in a pan of water, so when Slider slides down he'll make a
splash! That will be a fine trick for the circus! Come on, Slider, slide
again!"

Teddy was just lifting up his pet alligator, intending to put him on the
top of the slanting board, when Trouble was heard calling:

"Oh, come an' 'ook at Snuff! Come an' 'ook at Snuff! He's doin' suffin'
funny!"

CHAPTER IX

MRS. JOHNSON'S BABY

Teddy and Janet turned their attention from Slider, the pet alligator
whose new trick they had just discovered, to Trouble, their l