“Far, far away,” said Grandpa Croaker, for it made him sad to think of all the nice red and black checkers, and the board also, being eaten up.
“Oh, no! I think you are going to stay right here,” snapped the alligator. “You’ll stay here, and as soon as I feel hungry again I’ll eat you.”
And with that the savage creature with the double-jointed tail put out his claws, and in one claw he grabbed Uncle Wiggily and in the other he caught Grandpa Croaker, and there he had them both.
Now, it so happened that a little while before this, Bully and Bawly No-Tail, the frog boys, had started out for a walk in the woods.
“Dear me,” said Bully, after a while, “do you know I am afraid that something has happened to Grandpa Croaker.”
“What makes you think so?” asked his brother.
“Because I think he went past the pond where the alligator was, and that the bad creature got him.”
“Oh, I hope not,” replied Bawly. “But let’s walk along and see.” So they walked past the pond, and they saw that it was all calm and peaceful, and they knew the alligator wasn’t in it.
So they kept on to Uncle Wiggily’s house, thinking they would walk home with Grandpa Croaker, and when they came to where the old gentleman rabbit lived, they saw the alligator standing on his tail outside with his head in through the window.
“I knew it!” cried Bully. “I knew that alligator would be up to some tricks! Perhaps he has already eaten Grandpa Croaker and Uncle Wiggily.”
Just then they heard both the old animal gentlemen squealing inside the house, for the alligator was squeezing them.
“They’re alive! They’re still alive!” cried Bawly. “We must save them!”
“Let’s build a fire under the alligator’s tail,” suggested Bawly. “He can’t see us, for his head is inside the room.”
So what did those two brave frog boys do but make a fire of leaves under the alligator’s long tail. And he was so surprised at feeling the heat, that he turned suddenly around, dropped Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Croaker on the table cloth, and then, pulling his head out of the window, he turned it over toward the fire, and he cried great big alligator tears on the flames and put them out. Oh, what a lot of big tears he cried.
Then he tried to catch Bully and Bawly, but the frog boys hopped away, and the alligator ran after them. Just then the man from the circus came, with a long rope and caught the savage beast and put him back in the cage and made him go to sleep, after he put some vaseline on his burns.