Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-03-13

is gone for moment, and then you see a |
little brown bunch coming up out in the
middle of the pond. Get your rifle, Tom
and try shot at II If you please You
won't hurt him any. That little brown
ridge is just back of his eyes, and you may
fire away at it. Your rifle balls will glance
off from it, as if it were a rock, and he will
not come ashore again till you have gone.
There is no use in hiding, either; he sees
you all the time. Not very pretty pet, is
it, Nelie2 No it is not And, on the
whole, Though perhaps somebody's cabinet
in America suffered for it) was glad !
was away from home one night, when one
of them called at our house. lie was great
ugly fellow, nine feet long. Somehow he got
lost when going out visiting ! suppose, and
came up into the piazza of the house and
some men found him and killed him. But
do not be frightened never heard of any
one being hurt by crocodies in Ceylon, and
| think | am the only one of the missiona-
ries there who ever had visit from one of
them. They are towards, and will try to
keep away from you.
There are many other animals around us
here in Ceylon. There are the jaokals-the
"foxes of the Bible-cowardly mean, dirty
fellows, who feed upon carrion. Now and
then there is a cheetah, or Ceylon tiger
fierce savage creatures. But they do not
often come out of the jungle, and that is
some miles away from US. There are wild
elephants in that jungle, too, but they do not
trouble us.
In fact, children, | think the only animals
with four legs that trouble us at all here in
Ceylon are the rats They are all about.
One got into my money drawer once and
began nest of bank bills. We do not have
cats out here. There are lots of little fell
lows that folks call heas that make the cats
bad pets for little girls. Nellie will miss her
kitty But we have some better mousers
than the cats are, though you have to get
used to them as you do to the palm nuts and
the curry. Sometimes we will be sitting at
dinner when rat will run across those mats
up over our heads and whop, whop, whop,
after him. The rat will perhaps jump down
TO the floor, and after him will come his pur.
suer, and soon catch him in the room
What do you suppose it is ? 1t is NICE
clean, pretty snake, perhaps about six feet
long, and as big as mans wrist. You do
not like that at first, but you soon get used
to it. They are perfectly harmless, and
among our best friends in this rat country,
and | wonder why all you children have
such dislike to snakes. Some snakes are
very pretty and there are but few of them
that will hurt anybody. We have a great
many of them out in Ceylon. Some of them
are poisonous. There is the viper and
the cobra. The cobra is the one which
the Bible calls the asp and perhaps the
calder" 1t is very poisonous. But in the
Missionarys Life Insurance Policy" that
| told you about in my last letter. there is a
pledge of insurance against the cobra. See
if you can find it. And somehow, children,
we get used to believing these Bible prom
Uses out here in Ceylon as we did not in
Vermont. Why, | suppose some of your
ministers even WOulu say tllat verse meant
that God would only take sort of general
care of his servants as long as they lived.
But the best missionary | ever knew had
lived here in Ceylon almost fifty years, and
he believed God meant just what he said in
that Ninety-frst Psalm Why, he said he
had tried that very promise about the cobra
several times, and it had always proved true
And since he first went to Ceylon there
have been about eighty different mission.
aries there, and great many missionaries
children, too. Those missionaries have killed
hundreds of these poisonous snakes. But
though great many people around them
have been bitten and killed by snakes, not
one of all the missionaries, or of their chill
: dren, have ever been harmed by them.
found one under my bed one morning, but
he did not hurt me. | trod on a viper once
with only slipper on my foot, but he didn't
hurt me. And children, | think he is either
very ignorant man, or else he is a foolish
man, who does not believe that God takes
care of the Ceylon missionaries.
, And if God takes care of us we need not
fear anything or anybody. But if God doe:
not take care of us we do not need to &C
where there are poisonous snakes in order
7 to get into danger.