428 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



removed the lid from the box displaying to our 

 astonished view not one, but half a dozen im- 

 mense serpents. They were not as long as a fire 

 engine hose nor had they the girth of the portly 

 policeman, but they were as large as any that 1 

 had ever seen, fully large enough to excite my re- 

 spect. I asked the storekeeper if they were not 

 very heavy, and he invited me to take hold of one 

 and test its weight. I started to do so, but the 

 snakes began to move in the box and I suddenly 

 remembered that 



I MUST CATCH THE JAMES' SLIP FERRY ! 



On June 3rd. Mrs. Beard and I went after 

 blue lupin with a pick-axe with which to dig, and an 

 old pan tied to a string as a cart in which to haul 

 the plants home. In front of our next-door 

 neighbor, Willis P. Sweatnam, my wife screamed, 

 "rattlesnake!" Looking quickly around, I saw a 

 beautiful large black snake; the next moment I saw 

 another one alongside of the road. We passed on 

 and left them, but, on pur way back we 

 saw them again; one ran into Sweatnam's 

 wall and another ran ahead of us down 

 the road, and I took after it, and after a hot 

 chase, caught the snake and discovered why my 

 wife thought it was a rattlesnake. It had a way 

 of vibrating its tail like a rattlesnake, -and when 

 it did this, among dry leaves the sound was alarm- 

 ingly similar to the dry rattle of the rattlesnake. 



