A NAEROW ESCAPE. 329 



pay the penalty of his rashness. A slight consideration 

 of the matter convinced him that the safer plan would 

 be to lie perfectly still till morning, when the servants 

 w^ould be awake, and this he did, taking the precaution 

 to draw the gauze mosquito curtains as closely around 

 his couch as possible. In the meantime, the snake, 

 after roaming about the room for some time, ap- 

 proached the bed, and in a little w^hile all became quiet. 

 It seemed many hours, but at length daylight 

 arrived. The doctor listened with impatience, and 

 at length heard the footstep of his black valet ap- 

 proaching the door. The doctor at once called out 

 to him not to enter, but to fetch an old negro who 

 worked on the plantation, and was said to possess a 

 strange power over all crawling things. The valet, 

 on hearing that the snakes were loose, soon brought 

 a venerable Ethiopian, to whom the matter was ex- 

 plained. As soon as the old negro understood, he at 

 once declared himself willing to enter upon the task, 

 expressing a thorough belief and confidence in his 

 own powers. On entering the room he discovered a 

 large snake sleeping very quietly under the bed. The 

 doctor at once ordered him to shoot the reptile, but 

 this the man refused to do, and saying that he could 

 take up the snake without the least danger of being 

 bitten, he began to whistle and sing in a strange tongue, 

 all the while approaching the reptile gradually, till 

 at length he passed his hand over its head in a soothing 



