Chapter 7

WHERE OLD MRS. 'GATOR MADE THE FIRST INCUBATOR

Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Quack the Mallard Duck are great friends. They have been great friends ever since Peter tried to help Mrs. Quack when she and Mr. Quack had spent a whole summer on a little pond hidden deep in the Green Forest because Mr. Quack had a broken wing and so he and Mrs. Quack simply couldn't keep on to their home in the Far North for which they had started. During that long summer Peter had become very well acquainted with them. In fact he visited them very often, for as you know, Peter is simply brimming over with curiosity, and there were wonderful things which Mr. and Mrs. Quack could tell him, for they are great travelers.

Now once, as Mrs. Quack was telling Peter about the far-away Southland where she and Mr. Quack and many other birds spend each winter, she mentioned Old Ally the 'Gator. People who live where he does call him just 'Gator, but you and I would call him Alligator.

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,