One day, a ferocious looking alligator came across a cute
little salamander drinking water from her large bay area, since she was hungry,
but not wanting to spoil her dinner, she decided the salamander would make a
great choice. She also wanted to teach this salamander a lesson, because every
animal knows that they might get eaten if they drink by her bay. When she went
in for the salamander,
the salamander yelled, " Oh sister, don't eat me!"
This shocked the Alligator and so the salamander ran away
back into the woods, and she went back into the water hungry.
The next day she saw the salamander and tried to go in for a
snack but the salamander called her, his sister again! This time he only ran quickly to
where he was just out of reach, and then walked calmly into the woods like he was
trying to taught her.
All the Alligator thought was that the salamander was crazy
and thought that it also was an alligator. while he did have the same coloring as her, their skin was very different and she knew no one could mistake the salamander for an alligator like her.
Troubled by this, she thought about talking to some of the fellow animals, but fear of being called stupid pushed her against it. She had already been embarrassed about other occurrences in the past. Several days went by like this until her friend that was a
frog had seen the ordeal happen from the log that was perch right outside her
bay.When the alligator saw that the frog was there to wittiness the event, she was overjoyed! She went straight to his log after the salamander left and asked why the salamander kept saying they were related, it
was driving her insane! She told him that it was highly unlikely, especially,
since she lived in the water and the Salamander lived on the land. She also had doubts because she was so much bigger than him, so how could they be related?! The frog saw her frustration and thought for a few moments, chuckled and then said, "The
salamander lays eggs just like you, and the hens, and the turtles, and my kind. As both of
us are related in a sense, so are you and the salamander.”
The alligator now understood why the salamander said that they
were related and thought that it would be weird to eat the salamander as it is weird if she ate the frog or the hen.
Author's Note: This story came from the Congo unit, "Why the Crocodile Does Not Eat the Hen" by R. E. Dennett. The original characters where a Crocodile, a lizard and a hen. The turtle told the Crocodile that she could not eat the hen because they all lay eggs which means they are brothers.
