214: BOULDER REVERIES. 



the "cold stony glare" of the serpent. Not an 

 iota of an inch will it budge ; its eye always 

 seeming to gaze intently into mine. Perhaps it 

 is thus the snake exerts its alleged charms upon 

 other forms of life by "staring them out of 

 countenance." Lacking eyelids, it does not 

 have to wink at intervals and thus lose for the 

 fraction of a second the potency of its glare. 



Finally growing tired of its searching gaze 

 I retreat to the next corner of the fence. As 

 soon as I am six feet away the reptile begins to 

 creep slowly along the rail, with that easy, glid- 

 ing movement which no other form but a snake 

 can assume. Reaching the lower limbs of a 

 young wild cherry which grows in the fence 

 angle, it climbs them slowly and methodically. 

 At times its head and a foot or so of its body 

 rise unsupported and move from side to side 

 until it espies a crotch or limb, between whose 

 base and the main trunk it glides. Mounting 

 higher and higher it finally reaches a slender 

 branch ; where it bends its tail about a twig for 

 support, turns the body in a graceful half loop, 

 and reclines on the slender spray of twigs and 



