THE YOUNG PROFESSOR 147 



in one of the rooms of the house, the snake having prob- 

 ably come to the conclusion that this would be a nice 

 warm abode for him until he could find his way home. 

 My mother joyfully picked him up and promptly trans- 

 ferred him to his barrel. My father did not believe in 

 the theory that an antipathy to snakes and worms is 

 natural to humanity; he thought that it was generally 

 acquired at so early an age that the actual fact of the 

 lesson was forgotten, but that it was always due to the 

 teaching of some other child, or of some older person. 

 He was resolved that his own child should be spared 

 the pain of this (as he believed) unnecessary fear; and 

 the whole family received strict orders that on no account 

 was I to be in any way prejudiced against the crawling 

 members of the animal kingdom. Harmless snakes were 

 given me to play with, warned I presume, that I should 

 not hurt them. A favorite playmate was a large black- 

 snake, so long that when I was mounted on the shoulder 

 of my tall father, the snake's tail touched the ground. 

 Whether my father was correct in his reasoning, or 

 whether I, being the daughter of a naturalist, heredity 

 in my case worked in a direction opposite to its supposed 

 usual course, I do not know: certainly I am so fortunate 

 as to be without uncomfortable sensations in the presence 

 of snakes which I know to be harmless. 



"In his tramps abroad I have heard my father say 

 that he adopted a regular length of step, three steps to a 

 rail of an ordinary post and rail fence such as were in 

 use in those days. As he went along his quick eye noted 

 all the features of the country through which he passed, 

 and he constantly stopped to pick up plants or minerals, 

 or to shoot birds. At the end of a long dusty walk, 

 laden with these treasures, he would gradually come to 



