Interpretations 



father's old pewter dinner plates, but I see it is 

 heaped up in the middle so as to form a low 

 cone rather than a flat coil. Shaped like a gen- 

 erous mince pie such as hungry boys, in late 

 years, attribute to indulgent grandmothers, par- 

 ticularly when the maternal product is wisely, 

 more sparingly, dealt out. Of course it will 

 occur to everyone that it is a long call from 

 snakes to pie, but herein is the teasing and yet 

 charm of out-door meditations. No one object 

 can fix our attention long, and imagination al- 

 ways travels in seven league boots. 



I was sorry to disturb his snake-ship, but the 

 demands of curiosity are imperious. Prodding 

 the reptile gently, it slowly straightened out, but 

 made no protest as any summer snake would do. 

 As the coils relaxed, a thin covering of mud on 

 the scales cracked and fell away in little flakes. 

 Again I thought of grandmother's pie-crust and 

 its precious crumbs. The snake glided away 

 with that minimum exertion of effort that sug- 

 gests it has but to will to move and lo ! it is ac- 

 complished. This extra-early water-snake was 

 no "ophidian acrobat" as is one other species 

 common here, but showed not a trace of slug- 

 gishness when forced to move. It was free as 



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