News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-03-29

-=-= moe on my neck
" @+=5%1-z y that am irresist
ably drawn towan
tropical snakes and have n leaning il
the direction of fakirs and smuggIers
My fr end Harcourt is as much drawn
the other way, but | swear | had no no.
ton of the probable elect on him the
day drew him into little cross street
or court, where Il number of very fat.
well-prestrved boas were lolling in the
obscurlty of dark glass case on pile
OF Semi white blankets.
HarcOurt, something of O dreamer
generally, followed me i'll my searchings
after wonders, As amiable as q collie, with
only an understanding i'll tacit sort of
way that was not to introduce him to
women who would fancy it al incum-
bant benevo'euce to pull him out and
make him talk.
L hardly think he knew where we
were until forcibly pluclled him out of
the unrestricted glare of July day to the
gaudIly papered pussage way to the mu-
scum.
.'Harcourt, have lovely specimens to
show you-mottled boas and cobras, and
an awfully swell kind of n snake charmer
done up in the true Oriental fiimsies-
red Golf, bracelets of sequins, bare
ankles, and all that The Raiah is a
snake you should know. Upon my life,
1 think he begins to know me-"
With the best nentiuns in the world,
/ gave Harcourt little push, and he
stumbled against the cage with o dull
thump on the glass, which reused ezra
jah, and, rearing his head very sensi-
bly,, he gazed straight into our eyes. AS
pale and limp as n live man could ever
become, my friend shrank back and
seemed suddenly bereft of his legs. l
steadied him up, and really thought on
the moment that the ministerial Har-
court had imbibed an extra glass of some
spirited American drink. He asked me
to take him i'll the air. He WAS pitiable
weak and as ghastly as if he had seen
his grandmother's ghost i'll camera
obscura.
The strong, rollicking breeze brought
him round, and almost quite himself he
led the way to one of the wayside parks
so refreshingly frequent III the large
cities of this country.
He laid his hat on the park seat and
nervously wiped his forehead, while l
tried to entice pigeon from the gravel
without plum cake, seeming not to no.
He reverted to the affair uppermost in
my mind himself in his painful straight
forward way:
"Don't laugh, Strahan, when / tell
you that am the slave to All all pervad-
ing dominant horror. cannot look at
snakes, although once / really believed
that Nature intended to inspire almira-
ton in making brown aud green boa
nd e fho
alteration, with their brown velvety
skins, black eyes and graceful move
meuts." He shuddered.
"NOw ] can never see the one without
being reminded of the other. In fact, l
think there has been sort of sympathy
between women and sn,rkes since the
conquest of Eve Ivy the serpent. Both
are fascinating. The serpent fastens YOU
with its gaze like woman; the woman
stings you to death like the snake. Let
me tell you my story. Perhaps then
you may find nn excuse for me, and
tolerance Of something that is not super
stitious, heaven knows!"
I could not think of anything to say,
so 1 said nothing.
Harcourt, as J. explained, was pain
fully direct. do not like verbiage, but
] shun man generally who dives head
long into a thing and drags you with
him. Yet, liked Harcourt, as we some
times do chap who we fancy hus suf-
ferrd his full measure.
There are pages III nv life, Strahan,
which You do not know; but you do
know that | WIS an officer in one of her
Majesty S Foot Guards in India, and
that L sold my commission on account of
fever to De Land, of the Hawkhurst
Blues, and left before my time. l was IA
wild fellow i'll those days. A few hnurs
before my departure, while returning
from tiger-hunt in which and nv fol,
lowers were shamefully ont witte,l, / ran
across the tent of snake charmer-
villninously dirty old HindOo, who with
horrible yells AMI imprecations made the
twilight hi'leous by cudgpling his
daughter, rs he swore she was, while she
rsseverated with lifted arm to 'Allab
that she WAS simply his slave. inter
fered, CT course. We had u free fight
! aving the old fakir hors de combat, and
l bore off the child Zobeide-one of the
loveliest creatures even then that | had
ever seen, and rs wild as hawk.
''It was lucky that ] had been fully
prepared to quit the country. As it was
the boys of my mess begged me to have
nothing to do with Parsee, Hindoo or
Arab women, to leave this dark-eved
houri behind. Seeing me obdurate.
Captain Bel!amy said
'"Do as You will, Harcourt, but vou
may regret the day you did so foolish a
thing. Kindly remember that warned
you
"And how often | have!
"But then it was with glow of ex-
ultation | admitted to myself the entire
ownership of anything so untanted and
so beautiful rs Zobpide. She was as
delicious to my senses as pomegranate
blossom, and was grnt tude herself /
Poor, starved, unloved little thing, She
twined about me like vine" Again |
that cOnvulsive shudder.
"You recognize the old routine-the