more than a week thereafter, no one had seen them eating. If they had
manifested any dislike to any thing we offered, it would have been
something to build, to speculate upon; and with my after experience, I
should have had my suspicions; but all our relishes, and different
solutions, salt water and fresh, and half-and-half, were received with the
same indifference. Notwithstanding this, they grew livelier every day, and
as I thought, in better spirits. Held up by the tail, they would bark
something like a puppy when he first begins to think himself a dog; a
quick bark, with a brusque abruptness, and wondering intonation, as though
equally surprised and delighted at being able to speak so well. From this
circumstance, Mrs. ----, who roomed next door, and had a great variety of
lizards, as pets, very early exhibited a decided repugnance to mine, which
I found it impossible to remove. She thought they were vicious. I
maintained the contrary; insisted that they were a species of enlarged
lizard; and that to take any thing by the tail was always a severe trial
of temper. 'Not to inquire,' said I, 'as to the affinity in the words
_cauda_ and _chordis_, (the heart and tail of all things,) I beg to remind
you, Madam, how irresistible is the wag of the dog's tail when he is
pleased; how graceful the curl of the cat's; and how earnestly the calf,
that model of innocence, laboreth to raise _his_ what little he can; and
as to being held by the tail, what are the facts? The dog is indignant,
the cat is furious; in short, all animals resent it as an impertinence;
and I submit, could an alligator do less?' But Mrs. ---- _refused_ to like
them. I was one day taking my half dozen puffs at a cigar, (quite enough
in that climate if you would avoid the siesta,) looking down from the
balcony with an air of abstraction upon that tub, and puzzling myself as
to what could be the particular whim, the acceptable morsel to the palate,
of a young alligator, when the thought of fiddlers, the frisking, tempting
inimitable fiddlers, came to my mind so easily, that I was vexed so
evident a thing could have been overlooked. At that moment Bob was
stirring up the bear with a long pole. 'Bob,' said I, shouting across the
yard, 'Bob! fiddlers!' 'Eh?' said Bob. 'Fiddlers, Sir, fiddlers, you
rogue; run and get a bucket, a whole bucket full.' The fiddlers were soon
brought, and a handful of them thrown into the tub, when to my utter
astonishment the alligato