THE YOUNG PROFESSOR 147 
in one of the rooms of the house, the snake having prob- 
ably come to the conclusion that this would be a nice 
warm abode for him until he could find his way home. 
My mother joyfully picked him up and promptly trans- 
ferred him to his barrel. My father did not believe in 
the theory that an antipathy to snakes and worms is 
natural to humanity; he thought that it was generally 
acquired at so early an age that the actual fact of the 
lesson was forgotten, but that it was always due to the 
teaching of some other child, or of some older person. 
He was resolved that his own child should be spared 
the pain of this (as he believed) unnecessary fear; and 
the whole family received strict orders that on no account 
was I to be in any way prejudiced against the crawling 
members of the animal kingdom. Harmless snakes were 
given me to play with, warned I presume, that I should 
nat hurt them. A favorite playmate was a large black- 
snake, so long that when I was mounted on the shoulder 
of my tall father, the snake’s tail touched the ground. 
Whether my father was correct in his reasoning,—or 
whether I, being the daughter of a naturalist, heredity 
in my case worked in a direction opposite to its supposed 
usual course, I do not know: certainly I am so fortunate 
as to be without uncomfortable sensations in the presence 
of snakes which I know to be harmless. 
“In his tramps abroad I have heard my father say 
that he adopted a regular length of step, three steps to a 
rail of an ordinary post and rail fence such as were in 
use in those days. As he went along his quick eye noted 
all the features of the country through which he passed, 
and he constantly stopped to pick up plants or minerals, 
or to shoot birds. At the end of a long dusty walk, 
laden with these treasures, he would gradually come to 
