398 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



than they are in the fields and mountains of the Northern 

 States. 



It is entirely a work of supererogation to confine one's 

 self or family to the piazzas in order to avoid snakes, for, 

 if they are about and take a fancy to visit one there, they 

 can easily do so. 



How well we recollect, one day during our first summer, 

 hearing an unearthly shriek, accompanied by a scampering 

 over the porch. We rushed out, and there, dancing on 

 the lofty summit of a tool-chest, with her skirts drawn 

 tightly around her, we found our mater. 



** A snake ! there's a snake in the netting under my ham- 

 mock. I stepped right on it. Oh ! I'm cold all over ! " 



We looked, and there, sure enough, was a poor, fright- 

 ened black-snake, about three feet long, quite as much 

 ''skeered" as the mater was, and in a great deal more dan- 

 ger ; it was struggling vainly to escape from the folds of 

 the ample net which hung over the hammock and lay on 

 the floor beneath it, a net used much more for flies than 

 mosquitoes. 



There is no harm in these black-snakes, on the contrary 

 they are our friends, and always on the watch to destroy 

 those who are our real enemies. 



It is not so generally known as it ought to be, that there 

 are two of our Florida snakes which ought to be protected 

 rather than destroyed, the black-snake and the king-snake, 

 the latter being much the larger of the two. 



Wherever they encounter a poisonous snake they give 

 it battle, and, which is still more to the purpose, they inva- 

 riably come out of it victorious. The utmost of harm that 

 we have ever heard charged to their account (and we have 

 never seen it verified) is that they occasionally steal eggs 

 and young chickens. But even if this be so, what is this 

 in comparison with the important service they render us ? 



