68 
LITTLE FOLKS 
A CURIOUS FELLOW, 
That Walks without Feet, Climbs without Hands, and Swims 
without Fins. 
To begin with, he walks on his ribs ; and I dare say you have 
seen him do it dozens of times, though very likely you never 
thought how he did it, for you call it crawling. 
The curious fellow is a Snake, and in his long slim body he 
has — besides good strong ribs — powerful muscles, which bring the 
ribs forward as if they were feet. And on he goes, fast enough 
to get out of your way when you are after him with a stick. Why, 
his ribs, aided by his rough scales, are better than a dozen feet to 
him. Indeed, I don't suppose he would know what to do with such 
things, if he had them. 
Then, as to his climbing, you have doubtless seen representa- 
tions of this fellow in the picture, climbing trees, by going around 
the trunk in a sort of spiral. But that's not the way that these 
snakes out of the books climb. They press themselves firmly 
