The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-01-13

I
open with push and trotted up in
disturbed manner to my bedside. l
noticed tiny spot of blood on the black
side of his nose, and naturally supposed
he had scratched himself against
bush or piece of wire. Ruby" said,
what have you been doing?" Then he
whined as if in pain, crouching close to
my side, and shaking in every limb.
l should say that l was myself lying
with a shawl over my feet on deep
sofa with high back. l turned to
look at Stoffles, who was slowly peram-
bulating the room, looking for flies and
other insects-her favorite amusement
on the wainscot. When I glanced
again at the dog, his appearance filled
me with horror; he was standing, OBJ
viously from pain, swaying from side to
side and breathing hard. watched.
his body grew more and more rigid.
With his eyes fixed on the half-open
door, he drew back as if from the an
proach of some dreaded object, raised
his head with pitiful attempt at bark.
which broke off into n stifed howl,
rolled over sideways suddenly. and Law
dead. The horrid stiffness of the BODY,
almost resembling a stuffed creature
overset, made me believe that he had
died as he stood, close to my side, per-
haps meaning to defend me. Unable
to resist the unintelligible idea that
the dog had been frightened to death, |
followed the direction of his last gaze.
and at first saw nothing. The next mo-
ment l observed round the corner of
the veranda door a small, dark. and
slender object, swaying gently up and
down like dry bough in the wind.
1t had passed right into the room with
the same slow regular motion before
I realized what it was and what had
happened. My poor, stupid Ruby must
have nosed at the basket on the ver-
anda till he succeeded somehow in OPEN
ing it, and been bitten in return for
his pains by the abominable beast,
which l now saw angrily rearing its
head and kissing fiercely at the dead
dog within three yards of my face.
I am not one of those women who
jump on chairs or tables when they see
mouse, but have constitutional hor-
ror of the most harmless reptiles. Watch
ing the blue dryad as it glided across the
patch of sunlight streaming in from
the open window, and knowing what it
was, confess to being as nearly fright
cned out of my wits as ever hope to
be. l simply dared not speak or move
fSpr for faor Nf off ho
beasts attention to myself. Suddenly
Stoffles, weary Of patting flies and
spiders on the back, appeared gently
purring on the back of the sofa.
Stoftles, as have said, was inordinate-
ly vain and self-conscious. Stalking
along the top of the sofa-back and bear
ing erect the bushy banner of her mag
nificent tail, she looked the most
ridiculous creature imaginable. She
had proceeded halfway on this pill
grimage toward me, when suddenly.
with the rapidity of lightning. as her
ear caught the sound of the hiss and
her eyes fell upon the blue dryad, her
whole civilized play acting demeanor
vanished, and her body stiffened and
contracted to the form of watchful
wild beast with the ferocious and in
stinctive antipathy to a natural enemy
blazing from its eyes. In one light
bound she was on the floor in COM
pressed. defensive attitude, with all
four feet close together, near, but not
too near, the unknown but clearly hos
tile intruder; and to my surprise the
snake turned and made off toward the
window. Stoffles trotted lightly after.
obviously interested in its method of
locomotion. Then she made long
arm and playfully dropped a paw upon
its tail. The snake wriggled free in a
moment, and coiling its whole length,
some three and half feet, fronted this
new antagonist.
At the very first moment, need
hardly say, l expected that one short
stroke of that little pointed head
against the cats delicate body would
quickly have settled everything. But
one is apt to forget that a snake can
move but slowly and awkwardly over a
smooth surface, such as tiled or wood
en- floor. A snake that darts" when it
has nothing secure to hold on by only
overbalances itself. This particular
reptile, perhaps by some instinct, now
wriggled itself on to large and thick
fur rug about 12 feet square, upon
which arena took place the extraordin-
airy contest that followed.
The audacity of the cat astonished
me from the first. have no reason to
believe she had ever seen a snake be-
fore, yet by sort of instinct she seemed
to know exactly what she was doing.
AS the dryad raised its head, with gilt
tering eyes and forked tongue, Stoff1es
crouched with both front paws in the
air, sparring as had seen her do some
times with large moth. The first
round passed so swiftly that mortal eye
could hardly see with distinctness what
happened. The snake made dart, and
the cat, all claws, two rapid blows at its
advancing head. The first missed, but
the second l could see came home, as
the brute, shaking its neck and head,
withdrew further into the rug. But
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