"Oh, take us away! Take us away!" begged Sue.
"I will," the man said. "How in the world did you children ever get here, anyhow? But don't be afraid. The 'gators won't hurt you. They'll all jump into the river!"
And, surely enough, no sooner had the man pulled his boat close to the island, so that the keel grated on the sand, than, with great splashes, the alligators all plunged into the river.
"What made 'em go away?" asked Sue, as she and Bunny went down to the shore.
"Oh, alligators are timid," said the man, with a laugh. "Did they scare you? Well, if you had only run at them or thrown something at them, they would all have crawled into the water. But who are you, anyhow?"
"I'm Bunny Brown and this is my sister, Sue," said the little fellow.
"Well, I'm Mr. Bunn," was the man's reply, and he smiled at the children. "I raise alligators a few miles down the river. Some of 'em got away last night, and I've rowed up here to see if I could find 'em. I did."
"But they all got away!" exclaimed Bunny, for now not one of the scaly creatures was in sight.
"Oh, I'll get 'em again," said Mr. Bunn. "They won't go very much farther up Squaw River. It's too shallow. They'll soon turn and swim down, and they can't get past my place for I have a net stretched across the river to hold 'em back. Well, I'm glad I have found my 'gators. I was afraid some one had taken them. Now shall I put you children in my boat and row you home? Where do you live?"
"We're staying at Mr. Halliday's," Bunny answered.