As soon as he found himself in the water, the Alligator rolled himself over and got on top.  Then they both sank down, and there was nothing seen on the surface of the water but bubbles.

The fight did not last very long after this, but the Jaguar succeeded perfectly in his intentions.  He found a soft place—­in the mud at the bottom of the river—­and he stayed there.

A FEW FEATHERED FRIENDS.

[Illustration:  A FEW FEATHERED FRIENDS.]

Whether dressed in broadcloth, silk, calico, home-spun, or feathers, friends are such valuable possessions that we must pay these folks who are now announced as much attention as possible.  And if we do this and in every way endeavor to make them feel comfortable and entirely at home, we will soon perceive a very great difference between them and many of our friends who dress in coats and frocks.  For the more we do for our feathered friends, the more they will do for us.  Now, you can’t say that of all the men and women and boys and girls that you know.  I wish most sincerely that you could.

The first family who calls upon us (and the head of this family makes the very earliest calls that I know anything about) are too well known to all of us to need the slightest introduction.  You will see in an instant that you have met them before.

And there is no doubt but that these are among the very best feathered friends we have.  Those hens are liberal with their eggs, and those little chickens that are running around like two-legged puff-balls, are so willing to grow up and be broiled and roasted and stewed, that it would now be almost impossible for us to do without them.  Eggs seem to come into use on so many occasions that, if there was to be an egg-famine, it would make itself felt in every family in the land.  Not only would we miss them when boiled, fried, and cooked in omelets for breakfast; not only without them would ham seem lonely, puddings and sponge-cakes go into decline, and pound-cake utterly die, but the arts and manufactures of the whole country would feel the deprivation.  Merely in the photographic business hundreds of thousands of eggs are needed every year, from which to procure the albumen used in the preparation of photographic paper.

[Illustration]

Do without eggs?  Impossible.

And to do without “chicken” for dinner would seem almost as impossible for some folks.  To be sure, we might live along very comfortably without those delightful broils, and roasts, and fricassees, but it would be a great pity.  And, if we live in the country, there is no meat which is so cheap and easily procured all the year round as chicken.  I wonder what country-people would do, especially in the summer time, when they have little other fresh meat, without their chickens.  Very badly, I imagine.

Next to these good old friends comes the pigeon family.  These are very intimate with many of us.