"Well, what was it that made such a terrible explosion?"
The monkey said, "I don't know; but afterward I saw some men walking around the ruins of the drug store, and they saw a broken carboy and an empty can of glycerine, and they said the stuff must have become mixed, and made nitro-glycerine."
Then the little Cub Bear said, "That stuff must be a good deal like the stuff we found in the box that opened the way into the beautiful cave for us."
And the monkey said, "Yes, I heard one man say that nitro-glycerine and dynamite were the same; that dynamite was just nitro-glycerine mixed with a kind of clay."
The next night, just before bedtime, little Cub Bear said he wanted to hear the story the little bird had promised to tell them. All of the animals said they wanted to hear it, too, so the little bird began:
THE STORY OF THE LITTLE BIRD'S ESCAPE FROM THE ALLIGATOR
"You see, I am a very small bird, and I live in a very peculiar way. Almost all day I spend my time in the open mouth of the great alligators as they lie on the shore of the river, basking in the sun. You see, they keep their mouths open for me, so that I can pick up the little flies and bugs that torment them very much. These I eat, and so both the alligator and I are pleased. The alligator is very careful not to hurt me, for, you see, if he should close that great mouth it would kill me.
"Well, one day the alligator went to sleep as I was hopping about on his great tongue, and he dreamed that he was in the water swimming after a big fish. In his dream he thought he was near the fish and just going to catch it, and 'Snap!' down came his great upper jaw right on top of the poor little bird in his mouth. I expect you wonder why I was not killed. Well, the alligator had a hole in the roof of his mouth just large enough for me to get through, and it happened that I was right under it, when his mouth closed, so I got out through the hole."