142 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



When I described it to my neighbour 

 afterward, he said that it was probably a red 

 adder, one of the few poisonous serpents of 

 these parts. It was not very red, and may 

 not have been an adder, or a nadder as it 

 seems we should properly say, but it was 

 dangerous enough in appearance to bu any 

 thing of the kind you might name. 1 ossibly 

 it was a copperhead, that unseemly reptile 

 which strikes unexpectedly and without 

 warning, and which a generation ago lent 

 its name to those rebel sympathizers in the 

 North who formed our weakest spot in the 

 war days, and doubtless to many others 

 whom it was cruel injustice to class with 

 these. For when the nation was in dire 

 peril, people did not stop to make nice dis 

 criminations, and sometimes conduct which 

 was simply the result of a more delicate 

 conscientiousness or more philosophical ap 

 prehension upon the part of the individual, 

 was attributed to a much less worthy cause. 



We have not a great many venomous 

 reptiles, and I believe that I never knew 

 a person who had been bitten by one. And 

 yet I have a constant and very lively dread 

 of them, as I have intimated, and I believe 

 that this feeling is largely shared by others. 



The snake is perhaps more graceful in its 



