show me that. So I don't see how I can go to
the store very well."
"If Bully and Bawly were here they'd go," said their mamma. "I wish
they'd come. Oh, here they are now," she went on, as she looked out of
the window and saw the two frog boys coming home from school. "Hurry!"
she called to them. "I want you to go to the store."
"All right," they both answered, and they were so polite about it that
Mrs. No-Tail gave them each a penny, though, of course, they would have
gone without that, for they always liked to help their mamma.
"I want some sugar, and molasses, and bread, and butter, and some corn
meal, and bacon and watercress salad," said the mother frog, and Bully
and Bawly each took a basket in which to carry the things. Then they
hopped on toward the store.
"I'm going to buy marbles with my penny," said Bully.
"And I'm going to buy a whistle with mine," said Bawly.
Well, they got to the grocery, all right, and the cow lady who kept it
gave them the things their mamma wanted. Then they went to the toy store
and Bully got his marbles, and Bawly his whistle, which made a very loud
noise.
Now I'm very sorry to be obliged to tell it, but something is going to
happen to Bully and Bawly very soon. In fact, I think it is going to
take place at once. Just excuse me a moment, will you, until I look out
of the window and see if the alligator is coming. Yes, there he is. He
just got off the trolley car. The conductor put him off because he had
the wrong transfer.
So, all at once, as Bully and Bawly were hopping along through the
woods, this alligator that I was telling you about jumped out at them
from under a prickly briar bush. Right at them he jumped, and he was a
very savage alligator, for he had gotten loose out of the circus, where
he belonged, and he had been tramping around without anything to eat for
a long time, so he was very hungry.
"Now, I see where I'm going to have a nice dinner," the alligator said
to himself, as he jumped out at Bully and Bawly.
But those two frog boys were smart little fellows, and they were always
looking around for danger. So, as soon as the alligator made a jump at
them, they also leaped to one side, and the unpleasant creature didn't
get them.
"Oh, you just wait! I'll have you in a minute!" the alligator cried, and
he opened his mouth so wide that it went all the way back to his ears,
and the top of his head nearly flew off.
"We haven't time to wait," said Bul
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