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.
| SLIDER WENT SLIDING DOWN THE SMOOTH SLANTING BOARD. | |
| "The Curlytops and Their Pets" | Page 102 |
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.