“Well, let’s take a walk in the woods and see if an adventure will happen to us,” suggested Tommie.
“All right,” agreed Neddie, and off they went. They had not gone far before they met Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy, flying through the air, and Dickie said:
“Oh, Tommie Kat, your mamma is looking all over for you. She wants you to go to the store.”
“Then I’d better go home,” said Tommie, and off he ran with his tail up in the air like a fishing pole. That left Neddie all alone, for Dickie Chip Chip could not stay to play with him.
“Never mind,” thought Neddie, “I’ll look for an adventure by myself.”
He went on and on, and pretty soon he came to a big hole in the ground. He was looking down in it, thinking perhaps some new bear might live there, when, all of a sudden, up from the hole was poked a long nose, and then Neddie saw a big mouth, filled with shining white teeth, and a voice cried:
“Ah, ha! Now I have you!” And the first thing Neddie knew the skillery-scalery alligator, with the humps on his tail, had grabbed him by the back of his neck.
“Oh, let me go! Let me go!” cried Neddie.
“No, I’ll not!” said the alligator, speaking in a thick voice, like cold potatoes, for you see he had hold of Neddie by his teeth, and he could not talk very well, that alligator couldn’t.
Neddie wiggled this way and that and tried to get loose. It did not hurt him very much, for there was thick fur on the back of his neck, and the alligator’s teeth did not go through. It was just like when the mamma cat carries her little kittens, you know, in her mouth by the backs of their necks. Only you must not carry the kittens that way unless papa or mamma shows you how, for you might choke them. And I know you wouldn’t do that for the world.