A small aquarium would serve as a comfortable home for your alligator,
only you must provide a board on to which he can crawl to dry himself,
for he does not like to spend all his time in the water. To feed him,
take very tiny pieces of raw beef, and hold them toward him. If he is
lively, he will dart after them with wide-open mouth. If you are afraid
he will nip your finger--if he is very young he can not bite you--put
the bits of meat on the end of a wire. If you do not wish to have a hunt
for him every morning, you must cover your aquarium with coarse wire
netting, for young alligators are always eager to escape from
confinement.
* * * * *
Are you going to give a work-box department for little girls? I and
five others are going to have a fair to raise money to make a
Christmas-tree for a little sick school-mate whose mother is very
poor, and we want to make everything for the fair ourselves. One of
us has a lot of pretty cards with pressed sea-weed she arranged
last summer, and we thought they would be prettier if we could make
them into little books or baskets. Could you tell us how to do it?