Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-11-08

er see again. ] was lying on my lett slue
facing my wife, who was lying on 1eE
rio ht side. The baby lay on It's Dack De
tween US. AS 1 opened my eyes a us-FA
object glided down from OF the baby, anu
inst then the knot burst into flames ana
flooded the room with light. A Tatlie-
snake fully five feet long had shPP6u
down from between my wife and my sell,
where it had been stretched out presum-
| ably TO get warm, and startled, no DOUBT
I by some movement had made IN wax
/ ing, had thrown itself into a coil on the
! bed at the baby's feet. and Just opposite
G.Somebody asks if life is worth living.
/ 7 think 1t is as a general thing, but II he
/ had many such moments as that, L
should say emphatically that death was
preferable. For a moment L lost my
/ head. I did not move, fortunately, but
/ I seemed to drift entirely out Of all CON
/ sciousness. For a moment, only, TINS
! lasted. Then my senses came back 10
me, and felt that from the reacuon i
I would probably tremble from head 10
/ foot How / ever managed to keep my
] body rigid l don't know, but by an aWIul
effort j did. I knew that to stir was
death, perhaps for myself, perhaps Ior
my boy. perhaps-my God, the thought
! was agOny-fOr my wife. Outside couId
| near Tic EahCn III HDAA4k 4-C--- ---~ -e~---i
and 1 could detect the sound OF water
running TO waste over the hume. To-
morrow, / thought, III have plenty OF
water again. Tomorrow Would L ever
/ see tomorrow again? And If i did,
would / not meet it alone? In spite
I Of all 1 could do, a shudder ran through
my body.
1.-THE snake felt it and raised its head.
! I could see its eyes glisten and dance IN
] ~
over the undulating coils. 1 could see
! that the snake was irritated, and knew
/ that it was liable to spring at any mo
ment Who would il striker Either Of
us was in easy distance. 1t seemed to
me that I could see the beginning of the
| muscular contraction which would pre-
| cede the spring.
CAN this, of course, passed IN a frac-
/ ton Of the time have occupied in tell
/ ing it. My wife and boy slept on. /
prayed that they might not move, for II
they did I felt that the snake would
/ throw itself forward. / moved my head
! slightly. The snakes head again arose,
and for the first time 1t sounded its rattle.
| Instantly my wife opened her eyes, and
some way they rested on the snake. 1
could see that every vestige of color had
left her face, but she did not move q
muscle. Then her eyes slowly left the
snake and came up to mine.
Looking back over the nearly thirty
years which have elapsed since then 1
can see the look in her eyes yet. We
had sometimes talked of meeting death
together. Now it lay between US in a
more horrible form than we had ever
dreamed Of Yet the look of perfect con-
fdence in me which my Wife's eyes al
most spoke, was something a man does
not see more than once in a lifetime.
That look seemed to say for bahy's sake,
and like a flash became as cool as / am
at this moment. 1 could not speak, but
my wife understood that she must keep
perfectly quiet and jump. When the
time came, slowly and with infinite care
/ raised my head till I could look down
the bed to the floor beyond. My wife S
eyes followed mine and we both saw the
dog. The hideOus head Of the snake
lsWayed to and fro, and 1 knew what was
done must be done quickly. I looked at
my wife and she realized my plan Her
eyes filled with tears, but gave consent.
With prayer for help I moistened my
lips and gave one short, sharp whistle.
The snake, 1 think, didn't know what to
make of it, but the dog, Leo, did. AS
quick almost as thought he sprang to his
feet and bounded on the bed. To this
day I've never been able to understand
why the snake did not strike when the
uO2 moved DuJ IL ulQ not AS the UOg S
body rose in the air, my wife caught
hold of the baby's garments and rolled
out of bed. I rolled out on my side,
! grasped my rife which stood at the head
of the bed and turned. The dog and the
snake were rolling together on the bed.
I caught sight of the snakes head and
fired, and the reptile was past doing any
harm. The dog staggered off the bed to
the floor, shivered, mOaned one or twice,
looked from my wife to myself with
more love than 1 ever saw before or
since in any animals eyes, and then
died.
cat daybreak the next morning we
buried the dog and started for the viii
lage. 1 sold my mill and house to man
who was visiting my cousin, and before
sunset we We're on our way to Massachu-
sets. / built another mill in the east,
and we prospered and grew rich. Other
children came to make our home happy,
and there are grandchildren now. But
1 tell you, young man, that if poverty
stood on one hand and even a glimpse
of Skinner Hollow on the other, we
would take poverty cheerfully and think
we had made a good bargain"
Feeding Young Pigs.