CHAPTER XVII
BABY ALLIGATORS AND OTHER THINGS OF CLAY
THE first chance you have go to Florida; you will be charmed with all you see. Go where the sky is bluest, where winter is changed to summer, where the wild mocking-bird, the Kentucky cardinal, the scarlet tanager, the blue jay and a host of other birds are on most friendly terms with girls and boys. Go where the wild squirrels live unmolested in the beautiful great live-oaks, whose branches are hung with long, soft gray moss which swings and sways with the slightest breeze. There you will find the home of many baby alligators, queer little things whose eyes are provided with three eyelids; one is transparent and slides across sidewise like a window-glass to keep the water out of the eyes when the little fellows want to see what is going on beneath the surface. A number of baby alligators in a dry, sunny spot, will delight in piling upon each other four and five deep. The young owner of twenty of these pets declares that on such occasions all the alligators sleep except one who, wide-awake, acts as sentinel. At the approach of anyone he will swing his long tail over all his companions to awaken them and warn them of the danger that may be near. [Fig. 329] was modelled from a baby alligator who conducted himself in a most dignified and exemplary manner when placed flat down on a shingle lying on a table; but first he had to be held in position for a moment in order to recover from the excitement caused by being taken from his out-of-door home and brought into strange quarters.
Fig. [329].—Alligator modelled from life.
It is not difficult to model a
Baby Alligator of Clay.