Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-12-30

home, and then, apparently realizing
that she had not good enough hold,
sprang lightly into the air from off the
body, alighting about q yard off.
There followed minute of sparring in
the air; the snake seemingly half
afraid to strike, the cat waiting on its
every movement.
Now the poisonous snake when pro-
voked is an irritable animal, and the
next attack of the Dryad, maddened
by the scratchings of puss and its own
unsuccessful exertions, was SO furious,
and so close to myself, that 1 shud-
dered for the result. 1 could not have
left my position on the sofa without
almost treading upon Stoffles, whose
bristling back was not yard from my
feet. AT last, thoughts the Blue
Dryad, for one second coiled close as
black silk cable, sprang out the next
as straight and sharp as the piston-rod
of an engine-this lump of feline vanity
and conceit is done for, and-I could
not help thinking-it will probably be
my turn next! Little did appreciate
the resources of Stoffles, who without
a change in her vigilant pose, without
a wink of her fierce green eyes, sprang
backward and upward OH to the top OF
me, and there confronted the enemy
calmly as ever, sitting, if you please,
upon my feet!
Trembling all over with fright, ]
could not but observe that she was
trembling, too-with rage. The last
act rapidly approached, and no more
strategic catastrophe was ever seen.
For a snake, as everybody knows.
naturally rears its head when fight.
ing. In that position, though one
may hit it with stick, it is extremely
difficult, as this battle had shown, to
get hold of. Now, as the Dryad,
curled to a capital S, quivering and
kissing, advanced for the last time to
the charge, it was bound to strike
across the edge of the sofa ON which ]
lay, at the head of Stoffies, which van.
ished with juggling celerity that
would have dislocated the collar-bone
of any other animal in creation. From
such an exertion the snake recovered
itself with an obvious effort, quick
beyond question, but not nearly quick
enough. Before [ could well see
that it had missed it's aim, Stof1ies had
launched out like spring released,
and, burying eight or ten claws in the
back of its enemy's head, pinned it
down against the stiff cushion of the
sofa. The tail of the agonized rep
tile flung wildly in the air and tapped
on the arched back of the imperturba-
BILE tigress. The whiskered muzzle of
Stoffies dropped quietly, and her
teeth met once, twice, thrice, like the
needle and hook of sewing machine
in the neck of the Blue Dryad; and
when, after much deliberation, she
let it go, the beast fell into a limp
tangle on the floor.
When L saw that the thing was really
dead, believe [ must have tainted.
Coming to myself, Z heard hurried
steps and voices. "Great heavens"
my husband was screaming, "where
has the brute got to?" ''It's all right"
said the engineer; ''just you come and
look here, old man. Commend me to
the coolness of that cat. After the
murder of your priceless specimen,
here's Stoffles cleaning her fur in one
of her serenest attitudes.
From the gland of the beast, as
afterward learned, they extracted
enough poison to be the death of twenty
full grown human beings. Tightly
clasped between its minute teeth was
found few long hairs, late the prop
erty of Stofies.-G. H. Powell, in
"Animal Episodes and Studies in SEN
sation."