sister alligator and miss mud-turtle had always been exceedingly good friends, and always helped each other out of trouble. one day miss mud-turtle flopped over to sister alligator in great excitement.

"look here, my friend, i'm going to have a picnic over on the other side of your big pond, and i want you to help me!" she said.

"well, i'm right here to do what i can for you. just tell me of what service i may be," replied sister alligator, as she lazily opened her sleepy eyes.

"you are a wonderfully good neighbor," declared miss mud-turtle, "and i was just wondering if you would mind carrying all my young friends, the swamp turtles, across the pond on your big back? it would take you only a minute to swim us across, and if we tried to go around the pond, i am afraid old lady wildcat might catch us on the way. you know she is always trying to get the best of us mud-turtles."

sister alligator's sleepy eyes opened wider.

"i have the very idea!" she exclaimed. "just send old lady wildcat an invitation to come to the picnic. then i'll swim out into the pond and dive under and drown her, for all of you mud-turtles can swim."

miss mud-turtle laughed so hard she had to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"sister alligator, your sleepy old head is not on your body for nothing! you surely have some brains! that is the very idea for disposing of old lady wildcat! i'll make a carpet out of her soft hide for my young friends to play on before the sun goes down."

so miss mud-turtle sent an invitation to old lady wildcat, all written on a grape leaf in grand style. it told of the big dinner they were to have, and where it was to be, and that sister alligator would carry them all across the pond on her back.

when old lady wildcat got the invitation she mewed to mr. 'possum, who had brought it, that she would be there all right, but that they must be very careful when they carried her over the pond, as her rheumatism was bad.

then, when mr. 'possum went to take her message to miss mud-turtle, old lady wildcat laughed so loudly she had to hide her face with her paws for fear miss mud-turtle would hear her. she was just planning how to get the best of miss mud-turtle.

"whenever i dine with low-down mud-turtles and alligators it is time for me to lose this fine coat of mine. i suppose they forget who i am! ha! what would all my grandchildren think of their grandmother dining with mud-turtles!"

then she began laughing again, and her grandchildren, who were sleeping away up in the branches of a big pine-tree, came down to see what had tickled her so.

old lady wildcat was holding her sides and dancing about in glee.

"oh, children," she laughed, "we're going to have some fun! old miss mud-turtle is trying to get your grandmother to dine with her across the pond. get yourselves ready for the big feast, and i'll start over on sister alligator's back, while you all go on ahead and eat up the dinner."

"hooray!" cried the young wildcats. "we'll slip along behind to see how you get started, and then we'll run around the pond and get the dinner before miss mud-turtle and sister alligator can come."

so old lady wildcat loped down to the pond, and there were miss mud-turtle and sister alligator. all the little mud-turtles climbed on the alligator raft.

"be very careful, mrs. wildcat," sister alligator cautioned, "not to wet your feet. you might take cold."

old lady wildcat smiled pleasantly and jumped; and then away swam sister alligator.

it was fine riding till they got to about the middle of the pond. then sister alligator stopped.

"i'm very sorry," she said politely, "but i have the cramps, ooh! ooh! i must drop to the bottom of the pond."

and down she dived.

but old lady wildcat was too quick for her. she sprang up into the air and caught a grapevine, climbed up on it, and finally got to land. then she ran through the woods to where her grandchildren were, and there they had the greatest feast you ever saw.

finally, just as sister alligator and miss mud-turtle with all the children came in sight, old lady wildcat climbed up into a tree and laughed and mewed at them.

and this is what she said:

"never try to fool folks, sister alligator and miss mud-turtle, by plotting against them, for you'll find that you are only fooling yourselves!"