The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1886-08-07


head and a strong tail He looked
as though he could have swallowed
the old hens entire brood without
special effort For a few minutes the
old hen acted as though she had
gone crazy. She pecked at the snake
like prize-fghter in mortal fear Of
his opponent, and she clawed at him
with both feet until she fell over
upon her back incessantly, and
every scream was echoed threefold
by the old rooster and a drove of
hens at the cowshed. The rooster
would have joined valiantly in the
fight had he not been kept at bay by
jeff and old Rufe.
The snake was game. Apparently
realizing that the odds were against
him even though he beat off the
hen, he squared himself for desper-
ate fight. When he found that he
could not get away, but must stay
in the open ground and fight it out,
he dropped the little chicken that he
had been holding in his mouth and
reared his spotted neck. The chick
en- in his throat bothered him by its
weight and he swallowed it a few
inches further. The act of degluti-
ton was easy. Then the wicked
looking head rose fully eighteen
inches above the grass. The forked
tongue flashed back and forth like a
narrow strip of flame.
"Mow, look out, OF hen !" shouted
Uncle Rufe, as the snake made a
stroke at the hens neck. "If he
kotches holt O. yer by de neck you
are a gone goose. Hi OATS it.
Glib it to i'm !"
The hen made dash at the snake
with her wings outspread and her
feathers angrily ruffied. Her sharp
beak left a scar ON his spotted skin
about a foot from his tail. Then for
fully a minute the hen and the
snake followed each other about in
a circle The hen wanted to grasp
the snake by the neck and claw him
to pieces, but she was afraid to get
into close quarters. She tried it
twice, but each time the snake
lodged and struck back at her. On
the second attack he carried away a
mouthful of her tail feathers.
"Kotch i'm by de tail, you OF
fool; kotch i'm by de tail~ the old
woman screamed. "Don't yo' see
which end am a-movin ?" As if in
obedience to Aunt Lorinda's instruc-
tions, the hen made a dash, and
when her ruflled feathers had calm
ed dove Uncle Rufe was delight to
find that she had the snake by the
tail.
"Dat's de talk" he howled, as the
hen started to drag the snake toward
the cowshed. "Ii, there Take
kyar" The snake turned about like
steel spring and threw himself
bodily upon the hen. In a moment
hen and snake were rolling over on
the ground, the snakes tail lashing
the grass like fail, and the hens
wings beating about like the paddles
of a fanping-nill. Uncle Rufe,
Aunt Lorinda, JEFF and the canoist
crowded up to watch the fight.
"Hoopl Gollyp yelled old Rufe,
giving Aunt Lorinda a terrible slap
between the shoulders. "de oil hens
got i'm. l told yo' sol Bully fo'
dat OF henl"
The hen had the snake by the
neck, and with her feet on his writh-
ing body she was trying to tear his
head off. The snake made only a
feeble show of resistance. He had
probably been disabled by blows
from the hens wings. When the
snake ceased to struggle the hen
dropped him, and little Jeff broke
his back in a dozen places with a
hoe. The old rooster ran up and
the old hen gathered her frightened
chickens about har and strutted of
to the cow-shed.
A TRUE SNAKE SToRY.-On Mon
day, towards evening, Mrs. Robin
son a lady over fifty years old and
the mother-in-law of o. B. Marcy, Of
this place, went out in the field to
pick berries for tea. She had occa-
sion to cross a stone wall, while do
ing so she saw two immense rattle
snakes near the wall. Having moth.
ing to kill them with she walked
quite distance to fence from
which she took rail, and, returning
to the spot where she had seen the
snakes, she found that they had
moved an were nearly hidden in the
wall. She placed the rail on one OF
them and held it down, while .sht