played school the other day. This morning Bunny couldn't find his pencil
box, but it was out in the barn. He brought it in from there and we came
to school."

"And I guess," said Bunny, finishing the story his sister had started,
"that Judy climbed into my pencil box in the night and went to sleep
there and I didn't see her."

This seemed to be as good an explanation as any, and was probably the
way it had happened. Anyhow there was the little alligator in the
pencil box inside Bunny's desk. The scaly creature had crawled in and
then out, and when Bunny went up to recite the little creature had
thrust its snout out beneath the partly raised lid. It was this that
Sadie West had seen and thought was a mouse.

"Well, Bunny," said Miss Bradley, "I know it wasn't your fault, so we'll
say nothing more about it. Only, after this, please look in your pencil
boxes before you bring them to school."

"I will," promised Sue's brother.

"And now I'll excuse you from class while you take your alligator home,"
went on Miss Bradley.

"I can help him, Miss Bradley, if he wants me to," offered Charlie Star.
"I know a lot about alligators."

"No, thank you," replied the teacher with a smile. "This alligator is so
little I think Bunny can manage it alone. Now we will go on with our
lessons!"