“No’m,” Bunny answered.

“Is it yours?” went on Miss Bradley.

“Well, I have some pet alligators home,” Bunny admitted.  “Half of ’em’s Sue’s.  We got one of ’em down South, and Daddy bought the rest.  But I didn’t bring any to school.  If you let me look I can tell if it’s mine or Sue’s.”

“I’ll help!” offered Charlie Star.  “I know Bunny’s alligators, too!”

“No, let Bunny manage his own pets,” said the teacher.  “Come here, Bunny, and see what really is in your desk.  I can’t understand how an alligator would get in there if you didn’t bring it.”

Bunny opened his desk cover, the other boys wishing they had his chance to “show off” this way right in the school room.  Bunny looked inside and then laughed.

“Yes,” he said, “it’s Judy, the littlest alligator.  She won’t hurt anybody.”

“But how did it get to school?” asked Miss Bradley.

“It’s in my big pencil box,” Bunny answered.  “I brought my pencil box to school this morning, but I didn’t open it and——­”

“Teacher!  Teacher!  I know!” exclaimed Sue, raising her hand to show that she had something to tell.

“Well, how did it happen?” asked Miss Bradley.

“If you please, Teacher,” said the little girl, “Bunny’s pencil box was out in the barn where we keep the alligators.  He left it there when we played school the other day.  This morning Bunny couldn’t find his pencil box, but it was out in the barn.  He brought it in from there and we came to school.”

“And I guess,” said Bunny, finishing the story his sister had started, “that Judy climbed into my pencil box in the night and went to sleep there and I didn’t see her.”

This seemed to be as good an explanation as any, and was probably the way it had happened.  Anyhow there was the little alligator in the pencil box inside Bunny’s desk.  The scaly creature had crawled in and then out, and when Bunny went up to recite the little creature had thrust its snout out beneath the partly raised lid.  It was this that Sadie West had seen and thought was a mouse.

“Well, Bunny,” said Miss Bradley, “I know it wasn’t your fault, so we’ll say nothing more about it.  Only, after this, please look in your pencil boxes before you bring them to school.”

“I will,” promised Sue’s brother.

“And now I’ll excuse you from class while you take your alligator home,” went on Miss Bradley.

“I can help him, Miss Bradley, if he wants me to,” offered Charlie Star.  “I know a lot about alligators.”

“No, thank you,” replied the teacher with a smile.  “This alligator is so little I think Bunny can manage it alone.  Now we will go on with our lessons!”

There was something like a sigh of disappointment among the children.  For they had all welcomed the happening, since it gave them a sort of recess.  But now they must pay attention to their books.

Bunny shut Judy up in his pencil box, as the easiest way of carrying the little alligator, and soon he was on his way home with his pet.