The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-03
A SHIPPERS SNAKE.
THE LUCY ANN WENT AS SHEPLEAGED
WHILE THE STORY WAS TOLD.

WHILE HE 81 OHY WAC lulu.
The Rather That Was All Right Until He
Celebrated-The Skipper Repented His
Part In That Act-A Wife Who Wasn't
Fooled by Yarns OF Prairie RattIers.
pets? Well, 1 guess not" And the
long and lanky skipper of the Lucy Ann
took the brown jug from his lips and set
1t on the rail close at hand, casting his eye
aloft to the bollying canvas that was stand
ing full and smooth before the wind. 1t
was only little ship, the Lucy Ann, but
her skipper was her owner and a salt who
had followed the sen for years, until his
skin was as brown as tho tiller arm and
his muscles as knotted and hard as the
pieces OF oak piled upon the deck as the
little vessels only cargo.
"There amt nuthin aboard that crayls
nor creeps now" His ego ran over tho
deck load and to the hatch, as IL to make
sure that he was speaking advisedly. Ho
straddled the tiller and swayed with the
roll OF the ship, still with weather eve
toward the hatch and tho creyices in the
Lucy AIMS cargo.
81 liked pets once-all kinds-eyen
snakes" And q look of momentary terror
swept over his face as tho shadows of the
clouds overspread the canvas aloft. "Queer
pets-ain't theys-but had one, q primo
rattler an q beauty. Come from Tonnes
sec in box. TricksP Why, that Teller
would do anything for me. Many night
he'd come on an take my place here at the
tiller. lockin his head on the arm here an
his tail In that ring bolt there, an a-holdin
her to her course, while I went fer nap.
Onot, when some riggin broke aloft. an
thArA Uncn't n 81. n
1t, up he went, an, splicin hisself to tho
busted rope hold on there fer nigh on to
two days an nights til, we gets to port.
I'd go up there in the moonlight on talk
TO him an feed him, an he'd try to sing to
me with his tail, but he couldn't, fer it
was spliced up in tho busted rope.
when wo got to port that trip, he was
larger than afore, but loved him better'n
ever any ono loved n prairie RATHER. To
celebrate tho job he'd done for me aloft 1
piped him off to grog. He wasn't much
on drinkin, that prairie RATHER, afore
that; nuthor WIS I. But insisted on his
celebratin, an he never was tho same snake
agin."
The old skipper was holding tho tillcr
ut arms length now, and no swayed moro
with the heaving of the ship. He kept his
eyes on the hatch, rs before, but now con-
IL
wind had shifted, but the old follows
practioed eye noted nothing of the doings
up aloft
Yes, Sir, that snake changed from the
day we celebrated an got rs oussed as
prairie rattler kin. I argied with him
consider BILE, but it didn't do no good.
he just kept gittin ousseder and ousseder.
1 kinder thought 1t was on account of his
boin in port, fer I never seen q snake
what hated port an loved the water like
him afore the celebration. So I got on my
cargo an made fer the open sea. But 1t
didn't do no good to his feelin's. He 90.
cusseder an cusseder."
The tiller was swinging FREQ and the
sails tapped aloft as tho ship swung off
her course. But the captain didn't seem
TO MIND. He drank another draft froa,
the jug on the rail, with always ON eye for
tho hatch.
"Along bout the second night from
port the wind came on q gale, an I'D from
tho west thore come n cloud as black as
any had ever sec. 1t sailed and sailed
right up aloft, and then it busted. Rain.
hail. thunder, lightnin-all the tormints
which clouds kin hold-come down about
us on the Lucy Ann. I seen her built, an
knows her maxim, every pin an plank
from keel to top, but she shook that night
like she had spell Of ngy
Swish Bangl Bumpl And canvas
went a-kitin. Ropes was snappin and
splintcrs fyin. Me an the snake was up
on deck. The noise seemed to git him
wild, an when the lightnin como agin,
maxim 1t as bright rs day, seen tho snake
a-standin on his tail an just drinkin in tho
lire. Ho just got full of 1t, rs ho did OF
rum tho day wo was celebratin back in
Nnrt - Ii.
just opened up his jaws, laughin like ut
me, an heard his hiss in all the Dustin
noise an howl of wind. Them eyes was
lookin right ut me.
II knowed no was comm, but couldn't
move at first. l seen him hoppin an a.
skippin toward me. felt his hot breath
on my faco a-stronger'n / felt the wind
a. BLOWN 90 knots u hour. Fust he Slapped
me with his tail-a whack that sent mo to
the deck like dead. He danced on nv
face as lay there on the deck-poked his
tnil in my eyes an ears an Kissed at me
things no sailorman had ever heard aforc.
II howled an kicked an fought him.
He let mo git on my feet an knocked me
down agin. Over wo rolled agin and agin.
fore an aft, an then down tho hatch to-
gether into the black of tho hold All II
could sec OF him there, when came to-
was his eyes a-blazin an ablinkin in the
dark. But l could hear him a-crawlin to
port to Ice, fore an aft, all around me.
Them scales was crapin, an his kody was
a-thumpin. BY all the winds that blow,
that snake had growed until he was film
up the hold. 1 knew what that was for
me, an l started up. The hatch was chock
ablock with snake. couldn't feel nothin
nowhere but snake--cold, Shiny, slippery,
movin SNAKE
He wiped tho cold beads from bis face
and didn't mind the pounding OF the
boom or tho Tapping sail. Tho tiller
creaked, and the Lucy Ann rolled heavily
In thu frri,rh of tho S,,LLn,,I..