28 WAKE-ROBIN 



about with his elastic mouth; his head flattened, 

 his neck writhed and swelled, and two or three un- 

 dulatory movements of his glistening body finished 

 the work. Then he cautiously raised himself up, 

 his tongue flaming from his mouth the while, curved 

 over the nest, and, with wavy, subtle motions, ex- 

 plored the interior. I can conceive of nothing 

 more overpoweringly terrible to an unsuspecting 

 family of birds than the sudden appearance above 

 their domicile of the head and neck of this arch- 

 enemy. It is enough to petrify the blood in their 

 veins. Not finding the object of his search, he 

 came streaming down from the nest to a lower limb, 

 and commenced extending his researches in other 

 directions, sliding stealthily through the branches, 

 bent on capturing one of the parent birds. That a 

 legless, wingless creature should move with such 

 ease and rapidity where only birds and squirrels 

 are considered at home, lifting himself up, letting 

 himself down, running out on the yielding boughs, 

 and traversing with marvelous celerity the whole 

 length and breadth of the thicket, was truly surpris- 

 ing. One thinks of the great myth of the Tempter 

 and the "cause of all our woe," and wonders if the 

 Arch One is not now playing off some of his pranks 

 before him. Whether we call it snake or devil 

 matters little. I could but admire his terrible 

 beauty, however; his black, shining folds, his easy, 

 gliding movement, head erect, eyes glistening, 

 tongue playing like subtle flame, and the invisible 

 means of his almost winged locomotion. 



