A Sojourn in Cuba 



scrambling among some low rocks gathering 

 ferns and vines, when I was startled by finding 

 my face close to a great snake, whose body was 

 disposed carelessly like a castaway rope among 

 the weeds and stones. After escaping and com 

 ing to my senses, I discovered that the snake 

 was a member of the vegetable kingdom, ca 

 pable of no dangerous amount of locomotion, 

 but possessed of many a fang, and prostrate 

 as though under the curse of Eden, &quot;Upon thy 

 belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat.&quot; 



One day, after luxuriating in the riches of 

 my Morro pasture, and pressing many new 

 specimens, I went down to the bank of brilliant 

 wave-washed shells to rest awhile in their 

 beauty, and to watch the breakers that a power 

 ful norther was heaving in splendid rank along 

 the coral boundary. I gathered pocketfuls of 

 shells, mostly small but fine in color and form, 

 and bits of rosy coral. Then I amused myself 

 by noting the varying colors of the waves and 

 the different forms of their curved and blossom 

 ing crests. While thus alone and free it was 

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