At the mention of Old Ally, all Peter’s curiosity was awakened, for Mrs. Quack had said that foolish young ducks sometimes mistook him for an old log floating in the water and didn’t find out the difference until his great mouth flew open and he swallowed them whole.  At that Peter’s eyes threatened to pop right out of his head and every time he visited that little pond he pestered Mrs. Quack with questions about Old Ally the ’Gator and Mrs.  ’Gator.  It seemed as if he couldn’t think of anything else.  And when Mrs. Quack just happened to mention that little ’Gators are hatched from eggs just as her own children are, it was almost too much for Peter to believe.

“What?” he squealed, hopping up and down in excitement.  “Do you mean to tell me that anything as big as Old Ally, big enough to swallow you whole, can come from an egg?  I don’t believe it!  Besides, only birds lay eggs.”

  “Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack,
   Peter, you must take that back!”

cried Mrs. Quack.

“Why must I take it back?” demanded Peter.

“Because as usual you’ve let your tongue run loose, and that is a bad habit, Peter.  It certainly is a bad habit.  How about the Snake family?”

“Oh!” said Peter, looking very foolish.  “I forgot all about the Snakes.  They do lay eggs.”

“And how about Spotty the Turtle?  Didn’t he come from an egg?” persisted Mrs. Quack.

Peter looked more foolish than before, if that were possible.  “Y-e-s,” he replied slowly and reluctantly.

“Then don’t be so quick to doubt a thing just because you’ve never seen it,” retorted Mrs. Quack.  “I’ve seen Mrs.  ’Gator build her nest more than once, and I’ve seen her eggs, and I’ve seen the baby ’Gators; and what is more, I’m not in the habit of telling things that I don’t know are so.”

“I beg your pardon, Mrs. Quack.”  Peter was very humble.  “I do indeed.  Please forgive me.  Is—­is Mrs.  ’Gator’s nest at all like yours?”

Peter seemed so truly sorry for having doubted her that Mrs. Quack recovered her good nature at once.  “No,” said she, “it isn’t.  If I hadn’t seen her make it, I wouldn’t have known it was a nest.  You see, one spring I got hurt so that I couldn’t take my usual long journey to the Far North and had to spend the summer way down in the Southland where I always lived in the winter, and that is how I happened to learn about Mrs.  ’Gator’s nest and eggs and a lot of other things.  Mrs.  ’Gator is lazy, but she is smart.  She’s smart enough to make Mr. Sun do her work.  What do you think of that?”

Right away Peter was all excitement.  You see, that sounded as if there might be a story behind it.  “I never have heard of such a thing!” he cried.  “How did she learn to do such a smart thing as that?  Of course I don’t for a minute believe that she herself discovered a way to get Mr. Sun to work for her.  Probably it was her ever-so-great-grandmother who first did it.  Isn’t that so, Mrs. Quack?”