slope I saw him gliding down from a low cedar. 

 The distressing cries of two chippies told me 

 what he had been doing in the tree ; I did not 

 need to look at the half-dislodged nest. Then 

 and there I vowed to kill him, but from that 

 moment I never set eyes on him again. His 

 evil work, however, went on. lu a clump of 

 briers across the stream was the nest of a pair 

 of redbirds that I was watching. One day just 

 before the young could fly they were carried 

 off. I knew who did it. On the same side, up 

 under the fence by the woods, a litter of rabbits 

 was destroyed. The snake killed them. It 

 was he, too, who ate the eggs of the bluebirds 

 in the old apple-tree along the fence in the ad- 

 joining field. 



There must be a dragon in the way, I sup- 

 pose—in the way even of nature study. There 

 are unpleasant, perhaps unnecessary, and evil 

 creatures— snakes !— in the fields and woods, 

 which we must be willing to meet and tolerate 

 for the love within us. Tick-seeds, beggar- 

 needles, mud, mosquitos, rain, heat, hawks, and 

 snakes haunt all our paths, hindering us some- 

 times, though never really blocking the way. 

 [158] 



