Big Trees and already they towered 

 triumphantly to the sky. 



How would it feel to be swinging, 

 on the tippy top of that giant red- 

 wood? See-saw I gave myself up 

 to the soothing fancy now I was 

 swinging in it, as gently as a babe in 

 its cradle, swish, swish when a 

 faint, very faint movement beneath 

 brought me to earth with a jar and 

 stiffened every muscle to wakeful- 

 ness. Something was under the 

 heavy canvas on which rested the 

 rubber bed. Nervous, of course I 

 was after all the day's excitement. 



No, there it was again. Had I 

 remembered to put my horse-hair 

 rope around the bed, the magic rope 

 that is supposed to keep the rattle- 

 snakes away? Had I? Now I remem- 

 ber it was in place! Perhaps I was 

 to have the opportunity of testing it. 

 Noone not even the oldest inhabitant, 

 attempts to deny the numerous 

 rattlesnakes in the Sierra. Ah! that 

 sneaking insinuating motion, very 

 gentle, I could hardly feel, or hear, 

 or whatever sense it was that con- 

 veyed the intelligence but unmis- 

 takable. It had gotten under there 



