152 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



prominent. It seemed in retrospection that there 

 was not a foot of the bed in which I did not have 

 my fingers. Ten days afterward, at home in my 

 dark-room developing these plates, I was amazed 

 to see in the midst of this picture, lifting its head 

 and with open mouth, a snake, his fangs plainly 

 showing; so I must have made the exposure at 

 the very instant at which he struck at me and hit 

 a lily leaf instead. I had been intent on my foot- 

 ing or the camera so that I did not see him; and I 

 should have paid no attention to slight motion 

 in a composition of this kind, because I was con- 

 stantly running on to musk-rats, ground-puppies, 

 frogs, and water snakes while working in such 

 locations. 



On the subject of snakes, I must add one other 

 incident of my career. The little boy, Billy, de- 

 scribed in "A Girl of the Limberlost " was a very 

 real character, the truth being that the incidents 

 attributed to him in the home of the Sintons really 

 occurred at the Cabin, south. He was a brave 

 little soul, faithful beyond telling, entirely devoted 

 to me and to my daughter. One morning during a 

 midsummer of intense heat he heard me express a 

 desire for rain. He immediately remarked: "I 

 can get the rain for you," to which I questioned: 

 "How can you get it, Billy?" 



He answered: "Mrs. Smith says that if you 

 kill a snake and turn its belly up, it will rain before 

 night. I know where I can always find a snake 



