126 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



always, in spite of their stupidity, choosing the safest 

 and most direct route to the desired spot." 



" How did people find that out, by watching them ? " 

 asked Rap. 



*' Partly, but their paths or trails ^yere cut so deep, 

 sometimes two feet, in the clayey ground, that they 

 remain to this day. You see in the picture the Buf- 

 faloes are coming down a trail, and witli them is 

 another king of the plains, — the sand-colored sluggish 

 prairie Rattlesnake. Big as the Buffalo is, he does 

 not care to pull the leaves from a tuft of curly grass if 

 he sees one of these snakes near it. Nature evidently 

 whispers to the Buffalo very early in life : ' The little 

 horny knobs on your liead will surely grow, a lap for 

 each year : at three you will carry sharp spikes ; at ten 

 polished black curved horns ; at twenty, if you live so 

 long, gnarled, furrowed stubs, — yet do not be proud, 

 remember that gray Rattlesnake coiled in tlie dust 

 carries in liis mouth two fangs as deadly as your fiercest 

 charge. Be friends ; do not dispute, but share your 

 kingdom witli him.' So they lived together, l)ut the 

 snake has outlasted his brother king." 



" I shouldn't think then that plains would be nice 

 places to stay," said Dodo. 



" They are not," said Olive, decidedly. 



" You are thinking of my story about the time I was 

 belated, twenty years ago, and had to camp on the 

 ground instead of coming on to your mother at the 

 ranch," said the Doctor, laughing. 



" Did snakes chase you ? " asked Nat. 



*' No, but the spot where we were obliged to make 

 camp was full of their holes, and our horses knew it 



