Out of Context

With the exception of a few nod-offs at red lights or stop signs I have been awake, literally, for 40 hours. I am getting this typed and posted before I pass out.

The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack
Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess

“Of course,” said she, “no really truly log has a mouth or is alive, but this queer fellow I was speaking of looks so much like an old log floating in the water unless you look at him very sharply, that many a heedless young Duck has discovered the difference when it was too late. Then, too, he will swim under water and come up underneath and seize you without any warning. He has the biggest mouth I’ve ever seen, with terrible-looking teeth, and could swallow me whole.”

By this time Peter’s eyes looked as if they would fall out of his head. “What is his name?” whispered Peter.

“It’s Old Ally the ‘Gator,” replied Mrs. Quack. “Some folks call him Alligator and some just ‘Gator, but we call him Old Ally. He’s a very interesting old fellow. Some time perhaps I’ll tell you more about him. Mr. Quack and I kept out of his reach, you may be sure. We lived quietly and tried to get in as good condition as possible for the long journey back to our home in the North. When it was time to start, a lot of us got together, just as we did when we came down from the North, only this time the young Ducks felt themselves quite grown up. In fact, before we started there was a great deal of love-making, and each one chose a mate.”