so that he recovered completely his power of 
flight. 
On another occasion while sailing over the 
pond at the edge of the swamp his attention was 
attracted by something floating in the water. 
After circling around it a dozen times or more he 
finally settled on the object, which was a dead 
alligator floating breast upward. Alligators 
have a way of catching farmers’ hogs. Some- 
times one will knock down a cow with his tail, 
and when this happens there is one less cow in 
the land. So it is quite natural in the alligator 
country for farmers to dislike these big reptiles 
and to shoot them whenever there is opportunity. 
Somebody had killed this alligator a few days 
before and its body had now floated to the 
surface. 
It so happened that shortly after old Bill 
made his find the alligator hunter came along 
the shore of the pond and, looking out over 
the rank growth of up-standing yellow water- 
lily leaves, he suddenly saw a pair of dark 
wings flop a time or two and then disappear. 
Mystified, he stopped and waited; presently the 
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