old animal gentlemen squealing inside the
house, for the alligator was squeezing them.

"They're alive! They're still alive!" cried Bawly. "We must save them!"

"How?" asked Bully.

"Let's build a fire under the alligator's tail," suggested Bawly. "He
can't see us, for his head is inside the room."

So what did those two brave frog boys do but make a fire of leaves under
the alligator's long tail. And he was so surprised at feeling the heat,
that he turned suddenly around, dropped Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa
Croaker on the table cloth, and then, pulling his head out of the
window, he turned it over toward the fire, and he cried great big
alligator tears on the flames and put them out. Oh, what a lot of big
tears he cried.

Then he tried to catch Bully and Bawly, but the frog boys hopped away,
and the alligator ran after them. Just then the man from the circus
came, with a long rope and caught the savage beast and put him back in
the cage and made him go to sleep, after he put some vaseline on his
burns.

So that's how Bully and Bawly saved Uncle Wiggily and Grandpa Croaker,
by building a fire under the alligator's long tail.

And in case some one sends me a nice ring for my finger, or thumb, with
a big orange in it instead of a diamond, I'll tell you next about Mrs.
No-Tail and Mrs. Longtail.

STORY XVIII

MRS. N

"Now, boys," said Mrs. No-Tail, the frog lady, to Bully and Bawly one
day, as she put on her best bonnet and shawl and started out, "I hope
you will be good while I am away."

"Where are you going, mamma?" asked Bully.

"I am going over to call on Mrs. Longtail, the mouse," replied Mrs.
No-Tail. "She is the mother of the mice children, Jollie and Jillie
Longtail, you know, and she has been ill with mouse-trap fever. So I am
taking her some custard pie, and a bit of toasted cheese."

"Oh, of course we'll be good," promised Bawly. "But if you don't come
home in time for supper, mamma, what shall we eat?"

"I have made up a cold supper for you and your papa and Grandpa
Croaker," said Mrs. No-tail. "You will find it in the oven of the stove.
You may eat at 5 o'clock, but I think I'll be back before then."

Poor Mrs. No-Tail didn't know what was going to happen to her, nor how
near she was to never coming home at all again. But there, wait, if you
please, I'll tell you all about it.

Away hopped Mrs. No-Tail through the woods, carrying the custard pie and
the toasted cheese for Mrs. Longt