The Girl and the Alligator by Clara Grace Paulson

On the evening of March the twenty-ninth, 2007, Clara Grace and her parents went to the mall for a little non-pollinated exercise. Clara Grace ran straight for the fountain, so her Daddy gave her three pennies to throw in the water. After her coins were all submerged, Clara Grace sat on the nearby bench and her daddy said, “Tell me a story.”

“OK”, Clara Grace said and paused to think.

“Once upon a time…” her daddy prompted.

“I’ll do it. I’ll do it,” Clara Grace interrupted. “Once upon time, there was little girl in fountain. She say, ‘I want some money!’ Alligator say, ‘I get money! Touch my head.’”

Clara Grace’s daddy waited in suspense, but when no more of his daughter’s tale seemed forthcoming, he prompted again, ““And the little girl said…”

Clara Grace took up her yarn once more revealing how the wise maiden by the fountain answered the cunning alligator. “The little girl say, ‘NO! Bite my hand!’”