Mrs. Quack nodded.  “You’ve guessed it, Peter,” said she.  “It all happened way, way back in the days when the world was young.”

“Tell me about it!  Please, please tell me about it, Mrs. Quack, and the first chance I get, I’ll do something for you,” begged Peter.

Mrs. Quack carefully went over all her feathers to see that every one was in place, for she is very particular about how she looks.  When she was quite satisfied, she turned to Peter, fidgeting on the bank.

“Way back in the days when the world was young,” said she, “Old Mother Nature made the first Alligators before she made the first birds, or the first animals, so Old Ally and Mrs.  ’Gator, who live way down south now, belong to a very old family and are proud of it.  In the beginning of things there was very little dry land, as you may have heard, so old Mr. and Mrs.  ’Gator, who of course were not old then, were made to live in the water with the fish.  Old Mother Nature was experimenting then.  She was planning to make a great deal more land, and she wanted living creatures on it, so she gave the ’Gators legs and feet instead of fins, and lungs to breathe air instead of gills for breathing in the water as fish do.  Then, having many other things to attend to, she told them they would have to take care of themselves, and went about her business.

“It didn’t take Mr. and Mrs.  ’Gator long to discover that their legs were not of much use in the water, for they used their powerful tails for swimming.  Then one day Mrs.  ’Gator crawled out on land and right away discovered what those legs were for.  She could go on dry land while fishes could not.  It didn’t take her long to find out that nothing was quite so fine as a sun-bath, as she lay stretched out on the bank, so she and Mr.  ’Gator spent most of their time on sunny days taking sun-baths.

“One day Old Mother Nature came along and whispered a wonderful secret to Mrs.  ’Gator.  ‘I am going to give you some eggs,’ whispered Old Mother Nature, ’some eggs of your very own, and if you watch over them and keep them warm, out of each one a baby ’Gator will some day creep.  But if you let those eggs get cold, there will be no babies.  Don’t forget that you must keep them warm.’

“Old Mother Nature was as good as her word.  She gave Mrs.  ’Gator twenty beautiful white eggs, and Mrs.  ’Gator was perfectly happy.  Those eggs were the most precious things in all the Great World.  It seemed as if she never would grow tired of looking at them and admiring them and of dreaming of the day when her babies should come out of them.  It was very pleasant to lie there in the sun and dream of the babies to come from those wonderful eggs.  Suddenly, right into the midst of those pleasant dreams, broke the memory of what Old Mother Nature had said about keeping those eggs warm.  All in a twinkling happiness was turned to worry.

“‘What can I do?  What can I do?’ Mrs.  ’Gator kept saying over and over.  ’However can I keep them warm when Mr. Sun goes to bed at night?  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!  My beautiful eggs never, never will turn to darling babies!  What can I do?’