The other pupils giggled on hearing this.

“Quiet, children!  Quiet!” begged the teacher again.

“Are you sure, Sadie, that you saw a mouse in Bunny Brown’s desk?” asked Miss Bradley.

“Yes’m, I’m sure I did,” was the answer.

“Bunny, did you bring a mouse to school?” Miss Bradley next asked.  “I mean a pet mouse, for I know you and Sue have many pets.  Did you bring a mouse to school, Bunny?”

“Oh, no, Teacher!  I wouldn’t do such a thing!” Bunny declared very earnestly.

“I didn’t believe you would,” said Miss Bradley, with a kind smile.  “I think Sadie must be mistaken.  But still, to quiet her—­and all of you,” she added, looking at the pupils, “I will look in Bunny’s desk.  I am quite sure I will find nothing more than a book or a piece of paper that may have moved, making Sadie think it was a mouse.”

Miss Bradley went to Bunny’s desk.  All the desks in the room were of the sort with a lid that raised up and down on hinges, like the cover of a box.  As Miss Bradley came near Bunny’s desk she noticed that the top was raised a little way, leaving a crack of an opening.  Bunny had put one of his books in hurriedly, and the desk lid rested on this.

As the teacher raised the desk lid and looked in, the room was very quiet.  Some of the girls almost held their breaths.  One of them covered her eyes with her hands, lest she might, by accident, see the mouse.

Sadie West leaned forward eagerly, anxious, in a way, that a mouse should be found, for that would make her story true, and she was sure, in her own mind, that she had seen a mouse.  Bunny, too, looked eagerly at Miss Bradley, and so did Sue, from the other side of the room.

“Grab a book, everybody!” said Charlie Star in a hoarse whisper to the other boys.  “Grab a book, and if the mouse runs out we’ll bang him!”

Charlie was an active little chap, almost as lively as Bunny Brown himself.

Miss Bradley heard what Charlie said and, with the desk lid half raised, she said: 

“No, boys!  No throwing of books, if you please!  Should there be a mouse in the desk I can call the janitor to get it out.”

“Oh, let me get it out!” begged Bunny.

There was no time to say more, for now Miss Bradley had Bunny’s desk lid fully raised.  She looked inside for a moment, then with a queer look on her face she closed the desk again and moved away.

“Did you see it, Teacher?  Did you see the little mouse—­same as I did?” eagerly asked Sadie.

“No,” answered Miss Bradley.  “There isn’t a mouse in the desk, but there is a little alligator!”

“Alligator!” cried the girls—­that is, all but Sue.

“Alligator!” shouted the boys.

“Let’s see it!” cried Charlie Star.

“Quiet, children!  Quiet!” ordered Miss Bradley.  Then, turning to Bunny she asked:  “Did you bring that little alligator to school?”