and now said the big man he was an englishman who had just moved into the don t frighten him and we ll see what he ll do it is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity the motto of all the family is run and find out and was a true he looked at the cotton wool decided that it was not good to eat ran all round the table sat up and put his fur in order scratched himself and jumped on the boy s shoulder don t be frightened said his father that s his way of making friends he s under my chin said looked down between the boy s collar and neck at his ear and climbed down to the floor where he sat rubbing his nose good gracious said s mother and that s a wild creature i suppose he s so tame because we ve been kind to him all are like that said her husband if doesn t pick him up by the tail or try to put him in a cage he ll run in and out of the house all day long let s give him something to eat r down the they gave him a collar and neck little piece of raw meat liked it immensely and when it was finished he went out into the and sat in the sunshine and up his fur to make it dry to the roots then he felt better there are more things to find out about in this house he said to himself than all my family could find out in all their lives i shall certainly stay and find out he spent all that day over the house he nearly drowned himself in the bath put his nose into the ink on a writing table and burnt it on z the book the end of the big man s cigar for he climbed up in the big man s lap to see how writing was done at nightfall he ran into nursery to watch how lamps were lighted and when went to bed climbed up too but he was a restless companion because he had to get up and attend to every noise all through the night and find out what made it s mother and father came in the last thing to look at their boy and was awake on the pillow i don t like that said s mother he may bite the child he ll do no such thing said the father s safer with that little beast than if he had a to watch him if a snake came into the nursery now but s mother wouldn t think of anything so awful early in the morning came to early u breakfast in the riding on s shoulder and they gave him and some boiled egg and he sat on all their one after the other because every well brought up always hopes to be a house some day and have rooms to run about in and s mother she used to live in the general s house at had carefully told what to do if ever he came across white then went out into the garden to see what was to be seen it was a large garden only half cultivated w ith bushes as big as summer houses of roses lime and orange trees of and of high grass licked his lips this is a splendid hunting ground he said and his tail grew bottle at the thought of it and he up and down the garden here and there till he � he ard very sorrowful voices in a thorn it was the tailor bird and his wife they had made a beautiful nest by pulling the book two big leaves together and them up the edges with and had filled the hollow with cotton and the nest swayed to and fro as they sat on the rim and cried what is the matter asked we are very miserable said one of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and ate him h m said that is very sad � but i am a stranger here who is and his wife only down in the nest without answering for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss � a horrid cold sound that made jump back two clear feet then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of the big black and he was five feet long from tongue to tail when he had lifted one third of himself clear of the ground he stayed to and fro exactly as a dan ion in the wind and he looked at with the wicked snake s eyes that never change their expression whatever the snake may be thinking of who is said he am the great god put his mark upon all our people when the first spread his hood to keep the sun off as he slept look and be afraid he spread out his hood more than ever and saw the spectacle mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook and eye he was afraid for the minute but it is impossible for a to stay frightened for any length of time and though had never met a live before his mother had fed him on dead ones and he knew that all a gi own s business in life was to fight and eat v knew that too and at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid well said and his tail began to up again marks or no marks do you think it is right for you to eat out of a nest was thinking to himself and watching the least little 