THE HEIR TO THE BOOTS. 65 



thwarts the fatal nature in the distemper of the dog? 

 Many curious stories were told me of the bites of snakes 

 in quarters where I have no reason to suspect untruth, 

 and I will here relate two of them. 



A young healthy American was out one sunny day, 

 and saw basking in the road before him a rattlesnake. 

 Having " snake boots" on, of very thick material, reach 

 ing to the knee (in America they make these boots very 

 well), he, without hesitation, jumped with his heels upon 

 the reptile, but in crushing him he missed his first at 

 tempt at the head, and was aware that the snake struck 

 out, and with his mouth hit the strong upper leather on 

 the great toe of his foot ; but the man deemed the attempt 

 to wound him abortive, as he felt no pain, and in conse 

 quence he took no more heed of the matter. Days and 

 weeks progressed, when, at the end of a considerable 

 time, the man was aware of irritation on the ball of the 

 foot, but the time that had intervened between his com 

 bat with the snake and the appearance of this irritation 

 put all recurrence to the probable cause of the ailment 

 out of the question, and he applied such remedies as he 

 deemed the case required. He sickened, however, and 

 eventually died, when his brother, being his heir, not 

 only " jumped into his shoes," but into the identical 

 boots in which the deceased had killed the rattlesnake, 

 and wore them in supposed safety for a considerable time. 

 At the end of some weeks, however, the heir to the boots 

 found that he, too, was, if in a legal, still in an uncom 

 fortable position, and that he, too, had an inflammatory 

 action in the ball of the foot, but again no recurrence 

 was made to the snake. Probably the brother had never 

 heard of that transaction, and the remedies he applied 



