THE GARTER-SNAKE 



— a motion that charms us in the undu- 

 lation of waves, in their flickering reflec- 

 tions of sunlight on rushy margins and 

 wooded shores, in the winding of a brook 

 through a meadow, in the flutter of a 

 pennant and the flaunting of a banner, 

 the ripple of wind-swept meadow and 

 grain field, and the sway of leafy boughs. 

 His colors are fresh and bright as ever 

 you will see them, though he has but to- 

 day awakened from a long sleep in con- 

 tinual darkness. 



He is simply enjoying the free air and 

 warm sunshine without a thought of 

 food for all his months of fasting. Per- 

 haps he has forgotten that miserable ne- 

 cessity of existence. When at last he 

 remembers that he has an appetite, you 

 can scarcely imagine that he can have 

 any pleasure in satisfying it with one 

 huge mouthful of twice or thrice the 

 ordinary diameter of his gullet. If you 

 chance to witness his slow and painful 

 gorging of a frog, you hear a cry of dis- 

 tress that might be uttered with equal 

 cause by victim or devourer. When he 

 has fully entered upon the business of 

 reawakened life, many a young field- 



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