66 EYE SPY 
parties seemed to agree. For some moments it 
consisted of anecdotes bearing on the subject, and 
each of the group had furnished his item of inter- 
est supporting the accepted theory of the horse- 
hair origin of the snake. Only one member of 
the company remained to be heard from, Amos 
Shoopegg, the village cobbler, who had kept silent, 
with somewhat sinister expression on his counte- 
nance as he listened with a sort of superior dis- 
dain to the various wonder- 
ful accounts, until at length, 
upon the recital of the story 
of the dead horse in the 
pond, he could contain him- 
self no longer, and blurted out: 
" Well, I swan, I never see 
sech a lot of dunceheels ! I 
never hear sech fool talk since I's born. They 
ain't one on ye thet's got enny sense." 
" Waal, haow much hev yeu gut ?" asked the 
narrator of the dead -horse story, testily. "Yeu 
never see a har snake in yer life, and wouldn't 
know one from a side o' sole-leather er a waxed- 
end ef it wuz laid in yer lap." 
" Not know 'em ? I guess not," replied Amos. 
" I know more about 'em than the hull lot o' ye 
put together. Not know 'em ! Law ! hain't I 
seen 'em flyin' over the meddy by the hundreds 
in hayin'-time !" 
