96 Naturalist at Large 



I walked around Key West to kill time, got aboard, and 

 turned in about as the train was leaving. I went to sleep. 

 I am a very light sleeper, and slept perhaps a little more 

 lightly than usual on this occasion. At any rate, in the dead 

 of night I heard a sudden sharp yelp. I knew at once that 

 something was wrong and I reached over and twiddled the 

 carton. It was obviously empty. Nothing to do but wait 

 till morning. The hours dragged, but finally daylight came. 

 I waited patiently until everyone had left the car; then I 

 went and asked the porter what had happened. He said 

 that he had been asleep in the men's washroom, having 

 set his alarm watch so that he would have time to clean 

 the shoes of the passengers who were to get off at Miami. 

 He awoke and, lo and behold, there was the snake, which 

 had escaped from my carton, crawled the whole length of 

 the car and entered the men's washroom, where it fright- 

 ened the Negro almost to death. Luckily, the diner was 

 the adjoining car. The porter rushed in and got a cleaver, 

 chopped the head off the snake, then opened the vestibule 

 door and pushed it out. I pretended to be tremendously 

 surprised. I was carrying the empty carton and told the 

 porter it contained objects too fragile to entrust to any- 

 one else. 



After I had set it down and he had brought out my other 

 impedimenta, I asked him how he could account for this 

 extraordinary chain of events. He allowed he didn't know. 

 I asked him if by chance he had left the car on the siding 

 in Key West the day before with its door open. He said 

 yes, he had. "And," I added, "you went up town sparking 

 the gals." And again he admitted that I was right. I advised 

 him that he should always shut the door of his car there- 



