In the Serpents' Path. 59 



here is to your health and headway ! May the 

 day of many serpents soon return. Every one 

 knows a snake, but how few know anything about 

 them ! Generally, too, they care less, and think 

 only of the advisability of bringing down a crush- 

 ing heel. It is to be hoped that this villainous 

 practice of teaching children to dread snakes will 

 end some day. It is not an inborn dread, for I 

 have given children snakes to play with, time 

 without number, and have never found them 

 otherwise than amused. It is only after silly 

 stories are told them that the fear becomes estab- 

 lished. It is funny to think that there are school- 

 teachers who shudder over a dead snake and 

 forbid the scholars bringing living ones to the 

 class-room. There is no herpetology to be taught 

 outside of the text-books, and the fewer illustra- 

 tions the better. 



The mo wing- meadows at home were the snakes' 

 paradise ; and long before the introduction of the 

 mowing-machine what wonderful black-snakes 

 were to be encountered ! They were bold enough, 

 so the mowers averred, to attack you, but none 

 ever did. The champion mower of his day, who 



