128 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 
above for any black, sinister shapes. Suddenly 
Honey did a remarkable performance in the standing- 
back-broad-jump, finishing by rolling clear to the 
foot of the bank. Right where he had stood lay a 
hale and hearty specimen of a blacksnake nearly 
five feet long. Evidently it had only just awakened 
from its winter-sleep, for there were clay-smears on 
the smooth, satiny scales, and even a patch of clay 
between the golden, unwinking eyes. Only the 
flickering of a long, black, forked tongue showed 
that his snakeship was alive. Then it was that the 
Captain lived up to the requirements of his position 
by picking up that blacksnake with what he fondly 
believed to be an air of unconcern. He showed the 
awe-stricken Band that the pupil of the snake’s eye 
was a circle, instead of the oval which is the hall- 
mark of that fatal family of pit-vipers to which the 
rattlesnake, copperhead, and moccasin belong. 
“If you have any doubt about a snake,” lectured 
the Captain, “pick it up and look it firmly in the eye. 
If the pupil is oval — drop it. Perhaps, however,” 
he went on reflectively, “‘it would be better to get 
someone else to do the picking-up part.” 
When the Band learned from the Captain that it 
was the creditable custom of the Zoélogical Gardens 
to give free entry to such as bore with them as a gift a 
snake of size, their views toward the captive changed 
considerably. Said snake was now legal tender, to 
be cherished accordingly. It was the resourceful 
First Lieutenant Trottie who solved all difficulties 
in regard to transportation. He hurriedly removed 
