74 STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS 



always, in spite of their stupidity, choosing the safest 

 and most direct route to the desired spot." 



" How did people find that out, by watching them?" 

 asked Rap. 



" Partly, but their paths or trails were cut so deep, 

 sometimes two feet, in the clayey ground, that they 

 remain to this day. You see in the picture the Buf- 

 faloes are coming down a trail, and with them is 

 another king of the plains, the sand-colored sluggish 

 prairie Rattlesnake. Big as the Buffalo is, he does 

 not care to pull the leaves from a tuft of curly grass if 

 he sees one of these snakes near it. Nature evidently 

 whispers to the Buffalo very early in life : 4 The little 

 horny knobs on your head will surely grow, a lap for 

 each year : at three you will carry sharp spikes ; at ten 

 polished black curved horns ; at twenty, if you live so 

 long, gnarled, furrowed stubs, yet do not be proud, 

 remember that gray Rattlesnake coiled in the dust 

 carries in his mouth two fangs as deadly as your fiercest 

 charge. Be friends; do not dispute, but share your 

 kingdom with him.' So they lived together, but the 

 snake has outlasted his brother king." 



"I shouldn't think then that plains would be nice 

 places to stay," said Dodo. 



" They are not," said Olive, decidedly. 



" You are thinking of my story about the time I was 

 belated, twenty years ago, and had to camp on the 

 ground instead of coming on to your mother at the 

 ranch," said the Doctor, laughing. 



" Did snakes chase you ? " asked Nat. 



" No, but the spot where we were obliged to make 

 camp was full of their holes, and our horses knew i: 



