The alligator turned like a compass needle. It pointed its barely-above-water eyes at the bow of the canoe. The canoe glided between the flooded trunks of cypress trees and into the lemon water of the main channel.The alligator was not a ‘big-un’ as alligators go, but it was big enough for a boy to tell his dad – ‘Saw a huge ‘gator today pop.’

Size did not bother the alligator. He did not know what size meant. He knew strength. He respected strength. Twice he had been defeated by the strength of the green alligator with the one eye. Yes, he respected strength but he never made a linkage between size and strength. You simply went at it as best you could, and if it came back at you worse than you could give – then you backed off.

The alligator eyed the canoe again. . . . 

(Extract from the book – Planet Dancing.)