The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-10-20
OFFICIAL PAPER OF ALEXANDER COUNTY
SNAKES IN THE GRASS,

emOcrS OF the IRE on when the evening
meal was cooked. Betwcenthe wagon and
the fire is therude bed of robes and blank
cts on which mother and children are
sleeping. On the other side of the We
hicle stand the horses, munching at the
short, sweet grass or listening to the
far-ot' voice Of the wolf.
That is the background In the
fore ground a sentinel sits with his back
TO the solitary cotton wood. AT his
rioht-hand runs little brook at his left
is the boundless prairie DER which night
has spread her mantle Forty feet away
are wife and children trusting to his
vigilance. Overhead gray white clouds
are driving across the starlight heavens
and the moan of the wind has an uneasy
nervous sound. Away out on the prairie
the wolf gallops from knoll to knoll and
snulls the mir, and the coyote gnaws the
bloached bones of the buffalo and utters
his short, sharp cries of hunger,
Is there danger? All day long as the
tired horses pulled the wagon at slow
pace, the emigrant has carefully scanned
The circle about him, but without cause
for measiness. He knows he is in the
Indian country and for the last twenty
four hours his nerves have been braced
to hear their dreaded war-whoop and To
catch sight of band riding down upon
him,
Its midnight as we find him, His
ear has been keen as a toNS and his eve
has notrested fora moment The stakes
are human lives his life with the rest.
The odds are ten to one against him.
"Ah. if we were back at the old house
in Ohiol You remember the old farm
house hidden away among the cherry
and pear trees? There is the Highway
lined with dusty May weeds. hSi =
mile below is the quain, htJ.e >caoo,
house where the children learned :at!:
A, b, G. Half a mile above IS tie bridge
across the
The sentinel rouSe> M ami Eos his
eyes. 1t was the creek talking 10 him.
A. he listened TO its mouo.oCo@s taet.e
it suddenly began TO converse il r.&.-
tongue For momeu. he : thrilled
ana alarmed He looks kesa,y &tcc-
and he listens with ba,ei breath Tiers
are the same sounds the VS.. g. ~
coyote-the muuchinE Of the horses
the babb.uG Of the brooN5-rcw as
then a hat grJau from one o! ,-s c,-.. c.
rem S,eepu- .D uneasy sleep A-c
now the brook talks again;
There WAS the big brown barn .--. tt
sweet smelling hay-;ls gAsi--s ..1
with It's cows-iEe pond In N-g.- sts
barc.oggeI children used 90 vh.+-l-'s
orchard with is lLri=- O.. --'-- D,c 2
Won remember how 7J- -s=t o.. s1 20
the stoop AZ eye1.r--,.1-= ar. H--.t'
your pipe and w4re4 90 e- .--- D. ,..lT
on the gra.-s How rellst-- sI'T
thing was, There na. . -rgvig sas
in the summer air-'le .azg a.-- g ~.
sccl,-tuc low songs Il iAe god '..s a.
she rocked lue Dloy 90 sleep Why. l..
sometimes fol. asleep and .s: yn1: pfs
drop from -.'
The brook babbIed and the man s.eo-
Avel the sentinel who had five l.Ves n
his Keeping slept and dreamed, and a
hi, dreams wandered back ~ TIE Old
home and heard the old fam..a,
sounds
"Shl 1t was a rustic in the graas
Turn to the left little more. Ter.
it isl Thirty feet from the sleep q
man n raltiosnaEc rcar- its head aiys.
the grass and looks around IT, rye.
CLEAN Ike stars. The neck -we5. tEe
tongue flashes in and out, and % cole
and uucoil7 Itself rs II in fierce combat
Now it is advancing nOw n bwcEycs M
the RIGHT now TO the left npR n halt.
and coils itself to strike, II might creep
up and bury It's iangs in the flesh N
the sleeping man, and it will, j. creep.
again, il glidcs through the gras, lie
CLEAN now to the rght-n 10 The
lcftno straight ahead.
"S.s-s-hI'
The scrpcnt holls, Twenty feet more
and it could have struck the sleeper
but some movement OF his has alarmed
it, and il glide, away for fifty feet 20.
fast as a shadow travels.
Now look bcyong the snakcP !, II q
second serpent worming is way oven
the ground TO surround the sleeper with
pcril2 j. II wolf or panther creeping
forward TO makoa victmY Now, you
can see more clearly There Is the
scalp-llck and feathers the dark face
the cleaning eyes the shut teeth and
brou1ed throat Of Il BlacNoot warrior
A courier from one branch Of his tribe
to auoJhcr he has discovered the en-
campmcnL circlcd around it twice, An,
Is now creeping upon the man, wh,
sleep, instead Of watches
How softly he moves A pantho
stealing upon listening doe would no
exercise more care, Almost inch b.
inch and yet he is slowly approaching
He was u hundred feet away, Now III
is ninety eighty seventy sixty III
can see dark mass at the foot Of Tn
tree, and he knows that the scnlinc
must be asleep or hewould not be il
that position.
See the ratllcsnakcl 1t has face,
about II it was daylight you could Sc
II llorcer CLEAN in liz eye.N tightcnin,
OF the cords and muscles a fierce
Hash of the red tongue. A straight lin
: OF sixty feet drawn from the Indian {
E me tree would pass over the snak,
d NOW lhe warrior crcops forward agai
i - not weed breaking not rustic ,
y prove ms presence Two feet four
/, SIX See the snnkcl Its head
!; tbrQyn back It's eyes shoot sparks
!. there goes the deadly z.z.H.A.a of h
" rniiln 'Ihn hnul az ',kn Haitian f. A..