My Snake-Stick 



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hills, where it spends the winter, to the swamps 

 and river-courses and meadows, where it passes 

 the summer and finds its food abundant; and 

 May and October are the months when it makes 

 its migratory journeys and is most often seen 

 or felt. But at that time, relying upon the 

 books, we felt safe along the creek, where vari- 

 ous water-loving snakes, as the racers, were not 

 uncommon. 



One afternoon we were all down at this stream, 

 where we had an old skiff, so leaky that Helen 

 said she always felt like a criminal when she 

 was using it out on bail. 



The creek was obstructed just below the land- 

 ing by a fallen tree. Its broad disk of up- 

 turned roots was reared in the air near our bank, 

 while its trunk extended clear across the stream. 

 If it could be broken our boat might float a 

 long distance beyond it. 



So one day Helen paddled me out to it in 

 the boat, and I pulled off shoes and stockings, 

 and scrambled out upon the old log to examine 

 into the matter. I was walking upward along 

 the trunk toward the roots, when at a cry I 

 + 97 So* 



