WHERE OLD MRS. 'GATOR MADE THE FIRST INCUBATOR


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.