" COW-SPIT, SNAKE-SPIT, AND FROG-SPIT" 85 



which is thus generously moistened, what a task ! 

 Why, it would certainly have taken at least ten 

 cows in industrious expectoration to have left it so 

 profusely decorated as now ; but the fact is, there 

 is not, nor has there been, a single cow in the field. 



Only a few weeks ago I received a letter from 

 an Ohio boy who, among other things, wanted to 

 know what those slimy " gobs " on alders came 

 from. He said they called them " snake - spit " 

 out there, but that he had seen lots of them high- 

 er than any snake could get, unless it was a 

 " racer," meaning the blacksnake, which, as is well 

 known, is fond of climbing trees and bushes. 

 And later came a letter from a lady in Lewiston, 

 North Carolina, who had looked deeper into the 

 matter, and whose inquiry throws a little light on 

 the subject. She writes as follows : 



" An old subscriber to ' Harper's Young Peo- 

 ple ' desires to express the pleasure which your 

 articles have afforded. ... I have just finished the 

 last, and have been out to examine the faded 

 primroses, but only a long-legged green spider re- 

 warded my search. Too late for our season." 

 The readers of " Young People " will recall my 

 article about the beautiful rosy moth which lives 

 in the faded evening primrose, and which was the 

 quest of the above writer, who further continues: 

 " I do not think you have written about what is 

 called here ' snake's - spittle,' a frothy exudation, 



