A WEEK ON WALDEN'S RIDGE. 171 



thought, and I ran forward and began 

 throwing stones. " Look out ! Look out ! 

 You 11 bury it ! " cried my companion ; but 

 just then one of my shots struck the snake 

 squarely in the head. " That 's a good 

 one ! " exclaimed the other man, and, pick- 

 ing up a dead stick, he thrust it under the 

 disabled creature and tossed it into the road. 

 Then he bent over it, and, with a stone, 

 pounded its head to a jelly. Such a fury as 

 possessed him ! He might have been bruis- 

 ing the head of Satan himself, as no doubt 

 he was in his mind ; for my surveyor was 

 also a preacher, as had already transpired. 



" It is n't a venomous snake, is it ? " I 

 ventured to ask, when the work was done. 



" Oh, I think not," and he pried open its 

 jaws to look for its fangs. 



" I don't generally kill innocent snakes," 

 I ventured again, a little inopportunely, it 

 must be confessed. 



" Well, /do," said the preacher. " The 

 very sight of a snake stirs my hatred to its 

 depths." 



After that it was natural to inquire 

 whether he often saw rattlesnakes here- 

 abouts. (The driver who brought me up 



