CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
15 
knows his snakes, otherwise the advantage will be with the 
snake. The rattler’s hate for the dog is of long standing. To 
his way of thinking the dog will not fight fairly—he will not 
attack and he will not go away, but persists in hovering around, 
barking until his master arrives upon the scene to determine 
the cause of the trouble. Then it resolves itself into an uneven 
battle with all the odds pitted against the reptile. 
But to return to the thought previously expressed. The old 
hero of this story has really taken time off in order to promote 
a genuine acquaintance with Mr. Rattler, and we would gladly 
pit him against the most eminent authority on reptilian life 
anywhere to be found, particularly in matters touching the 
wild life and habits of this one species of reptile, which is one 
of the largest, most ferocious, and most deadly reptiles known. 
Quite true, Uncle Dave has never seen the inside of a high 
school or college, and does not know what it is all about, and 
though he has never said so, it is quite evident that it “Net¬ 
tles” him when the writer projects some thought into our field 
of discussion—some theory expressed by college men or scien¬ 
tists, who probably learned all they know by reading college 
text books, or maybe by visiting the serpents down at the zoo 
and studying them behind bullet-proof glass. Permit me to 
repeat that when such theories are flashed before him, and 
happen to be completely at variance with his own observations, 
he dismissed the subject with a visible show of impatience, but 
never going out of his way to criticize scientists, who would 
seek to match their theories against the knowledge he has 
gained by a lifetime of observation in the wild. 
He was endowed with an inquiring mind, never permitting 
anything, no matter how trivial, to pass his observing eye 
without being checked and re-checked. Few men seem capable 
of establishing any relationship whatever between cause and 
effect, but he is not one of them. It appears perfectly natural 
for him to adopt the philosophy that nothing ever happens 
without a cause. He gives the most painstaking study to the 
herbs of the woodland, their well recognized, or maybe poten¬ 
tial medicinal value, but in doing so does not permit the fixed 
stars, nor the planets in their orbits, to pass by unnoticed. 
