so far as Pete had ever learned none had yet 
appeared with a bell, but now he felt sure that 
one would come, and the dread of it hung over 
him like a black cloud. 
He caught half a dozen small fish one after 
another and dropped them down into the boat. 
~The morning was very still. The only notes 
that came to his ears were the whistling of a 
cardinal on shore, and once or twice the muffled 
tapping of a woodpecker on a dead limb over in 
the swamp. Now and then an alligator bellowed 
and another answered half a mile away. Pete 
was accustomed to these sounds and they did 
not disturb him. So he sat engrossed in his sad 
reflections until he became awere of a slight 
scraping, sliding sound, and looking up saw an 
enormous cotton-mouth water moccasin gliding 
out of the lily pads and 
over the front end of 
his boat. 
“Git out o’ here 
ordered Pete; but the 
snake came slowly 
1°? 
toward the center of the ie a af the lily 
105 
