The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-10-04


a pronged stick, bottle Sof chloro
form and a small spobge wer
taken from box in the wagon. II
the basket was an imitation mouse
fastened to the end of stout stick
and wound around the end of thu
stick was small ball of twiRe. Al
old cloth apron completed what
Jerry called the ''outfit."
! Down to the edge of the big
swamp, where the weeds and the
bushes grew thick and high, Jerry
walked softly, and, after five min
! utes Of slow creeping sat down up
on log.
keep quiet now," he cautioned,
there's lots of snake holes around
here. Here's where l saw the big
'un three weeks ago. Now, you
hold the end of the string while |
fasten the mouse in the clear spot
over there
The stick upon which the imita.
ton mouse was fastened WAS forced
! into the ground so that the mouse
rested in an upright position about an
inch above the sand. The string
reached from the mouse to the log.
We laid down, side by side, behind
the log, with our heads upraised so
that we could command view of a
! semicircle thirty or forty feet in
diameter.
We waited five minutes in utter
silence. Then Jerry's arm moved
backward quickly and the string
futted an instant in the sand.
Squeak ! The imitation mouse
cried out as if caught in trap. A
bird stopped chirping overhead.
Squeak-squeak The bird few
away. At irregular intervals for
ten minutes the mouse shrieked in
anguish, but only the fitting shadow
of the swaying string disturbed the
dull gray surface Of the sand.
Through an opening in the trees
the sun blazed down in sullen fury.
Out in q cleared field the heat
throbbed upward like waves from a
furnace. The narrow horizon be-
yond the trees waved like banner,
and the branches of the bushes
hung motionless in the sitting
air.
Squeak-squeak-squeak! The
mouse was becoming furious. Over
at the base of a stump something
moved. A streak of yellow gray
sand seemed to start into like.
Jerry nudged me softly.
"a snake" 1t was but a whis-
per, but the snake heard it and
stopped, with head upraised and
tongue darting back and forth like
the flame of spirit lamp. The
mouse became frantic at this dan.
ger. Jerry seized the crotched
stick, the choloroform and the
sponge, and was making ready for
a spring, when I saw by sudden
pallor in his face that something
had happened. I leaned toward
him and he put his lips close to my
ear.
There's a snake crawling over
my legs" he whispered. "Don't
move muscle"
Jerry bowed his head upon the
log and became as marble. In
moment something touched my legs
twice. A chill ran through me; my
veins ceased throbbing and my
lungs refused to do their work.
The snake was feeling his way
across me. A second heightened
into a minute, the minute into an
hour, seemingly, and still the snake
dragged his heavy length across
my legs. In that second of horror
and disgust the reptile was as long
as ships cable and as heavy as
tree. When 1 felt myself free of
the weight l turned my head. Jerry
had risen, and with stick in hand
was stepping over ME. He made a
lunge at something, and when L
jumped to my feet I found him
hold the stick upon the snakes
neck.
"Wet the sponge with chloro-
form. quick, and hold it upon his
nose"
That's the way l ketch EN-"
said Jerry, as he wrapped the snake
in the apron and crowded it into
the basket. "No trouble about that,
is there? Tomorrow that piney
snake will stretch his six feet o
length in a box that I've got up to
the house, an next week he'll go
to New York or to the new museum
on Arch street, Philadelphia. That
mouse does the business every time.
That first snake skipped back in
to his hole when the mouse stopped
squeakin. No use tryin' i'm to-day
any more. Wouldn't come out for
a drove of mice. They're mighty
sharp, snakes is."-Letter to Phila-
delphia Times.
THE TRADE DoLLAR.-The trade
dollar is like dude because it is