The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-25
THE PETTED SNAKE.
MAGOG'S PECULIAR AND USEFUL
POSITION AS HAT CATCHER AND
HOUSEHOLD PROTECTOR.
BY p. 4 BLACK.

10 MS guardians Tor nndlng career for
him, but was slightly dubious himself as
to whether he would care much for that
sort of thing. On learning that he had
to so 10 the faraBay English colony, he
studied books about the place and read
of panthers, elephants. elk aud snakes
living In profuson there he felt somewhat
alarmed, being, you know, merely a
harmless, studious youth of some II years
old, who had not the slightest desire TO
kill an elephant, SO long as the elephant
did not want TO kill him.
Ralph read of cobras and tic-polongas
and other venomous snakes of the island.
until he was scared, and, by the time his
periadore Cor manager) had installed him
| in the little bamboo matched bungalow
which he was to cali his own. he was in
| that state, if you had tTailed a whlplash
suddenly before his unsuspecting gaze he
! would have gone into Mysteries.
Ralph had one particular servant, whom
he had to engage aud pay himself-De
| Silva, a Cingalese. The other help came
| from the coolie lines of Ihe estate and
after their days work used TO retire to
| their huts When dinner in the evening
| was over, De Silva used to retire also.
| Where he retired 10 Ralph never inquired.
| Indian servants have way of disappear
| ing and turning up again which would pug
| zle a conjuror There was a kitchen and
! Clubhouse separate from the bungalow,
and, for ali Ralph knew, De Silva, after
| salaaming and saying "Goonye, honora-
| BILE sir, went away TO sleep on top of the
! kitchen range,
AT any rate, after the days work was
| done, unless he was invited to dine with
| the periadore, Ralph was utterly alone,
with no white man nearer than the big
| bungalow, mile and half away dawn
| the mountain. IL is an awful, horrible
| way to be left, Ralph was, fresh from
home and mother and sisters He used
| to sit and try to read the magazines sent
! ia him and his hooks fgr
! rible silence of the mountains-welcome to
an older man-frightened him That ST.
! lence would be broken sometimes by a
/ furious tom-tom orgie at the nuts of the
| coolies, or the long wall of a native wo-
| man. mourning her dead child, or again
| by a sudden tropical thunderstorm, with
| such crashes Of thunder echoing among
| the mountains and such torrents of rain
as filed the boys timid soul with ter
| ror
1t was in the midst of one such storm,
when the reading lamp was low, and It
! was near midnight that Ralph longing
looked up and saw 2fagog. Ralph gave
one tremendous howl and rushed out,
! thrugh the back door, to seek De Silva.
| couch he had chosen for that night-a
! shelf just, one would think, broad enough
| for the erockery IL was intended to hold.
| Still, De Silva looked comfortable
"A cobra" yelled Ralph, pulling the
! cook down on the floor without regard to
his feelings. "A eeobra! a snake! A ser
chair.
In the sitting room, hanging. halfway
down the wall 1t hangs from the ceiling
| cloth lin old bungalows whitewashed can
vas, often cracking at the walls, is stretch
| ed beneath the rafters, and looks just like
| an ordinary ceiling), and was coming at
mel"
De Silva looked at Ralph reproachfui-
5hq h s s 5Re doPe f saGG H. is Ma
| cog. Did you not know? 1t is the spe-
cial friend and protector of my last hon
orable dore No cObra-no, dore. Only
one great, beautiful, much to be caressed
| ratsnake, Magog."
So De Silva went with his young master
| in to the bungalow and introduced him to
! Magog-the snake. Magog hung just as
! Ralph has described him, halfway down
the wall. a great, fat. black snake with
| quiet steady, watchfuf eyes on the room
| il hung ready, a fash of dread TO draw
! itself up above the ceiling cloth and dis
| appear in its lair there beneath the bam-
| boo thatch where II hunted the rats,
| which fought with IL for q home.
mo Magog." said De Silva, explaining,
then TOO many rats and mice"
| In fact, Mag0g was the house cat.
| De Silva took a saucer and filed 1t with
| cocoanut milk, and placed 1t on the floor
in Magogs corner. Ralph shuddered when
evidently feeling quite secure, and suck up
/ the milk De Silva smiled.
Wait, honorable sir, said he, and I
a dinner. II may be that the gods have
| not seen fit to give him rats"
He left Ralph alone, shuddering at his
| proximity to the big snake. il was
/ monster for a ratsnake, quite FIVE feet in
| length, and thick as Ralphs arm, and,
though Ralph knew that ratsnakes were
| not venemous, he felt far from happy at
| being alone with 1t.
The cook came back with a little squrrn-
| ing puppy its eyes not yet open.
| "Don't" Ralph cried but the snake had
already darted for the {'tue beast. swal-
lowed il, gorged It, Ralph could see its
! uudulous body distend.
dKI itEKiil itP' Ralph cried. and De
| Silva looked at him with extreme sorrow
and some contempt.
"No. dore," said he, ut was my last
| BILE sir said Il was the luck of the bunga-
| low-I say right in English2 Yes? The
! luck of the bungalow. 1t was his treas
/ ure. Do not XII. il.
The snake lepped up the rest OF the milk,
| and in a twinkling slithered away again.
1 Ralph went TO bed But he could not
/ sleep Above his head that night md every
night he could hear The scamper of rats on
| the ceiling cloth, and after faint, fOriofu
squeak and he knew that Magog was do
| ing his duty as a colonial house cat. The
snake may have been dong his duty. but
! Ralph could not bear the thought Of It's
| nearness. He tried to conquer the feeling,
| but he cousdn I.
Poor Nagog, used to being petted by It's
] last master, would peer out from the cell
| ing cloth for hours Ia the evening, while
| Ralph was trying TO read, and Ralph
| would look up from his books, and see It's
\ back head and quiet, watchful eyes ana
| be Mortified. Between its noise by night
/ in The roof and It's presence In the even
| ing Ralph grew 90 nervous that, IA spite
| Of De siivas warning and wishes he tried
| 10 kill The snake. He sat one evening al
| his table with a revolver in hand ard.
| when Magog appeared as usual, he took
! fair aim and fired. The bullet went into
| the wall; Magog Withdrew like a flash. De
J silva came rushing.
II think | hit the brute said Ralph
! and pointed 10 a spot Of blood on the
| whitewashed wall.
"Ohl honorable dore," said De silva, SUI
nerstifious as his kind, 1T was the luck
| az the bungalow-say ! Il right2 Ny last
dore said Magog was the luck OF the bung-
| allow"
rowing. but Ralph felt as " he had done
q good deed, and rid the word OF hide
No more came Magog TO plague the
xroung einnadore. For many nights the
rats scampered over the ceiling cloth with
out any pursuer. Ralph. in his lonely
evenings looked al the vacant crack, and
| congratulated himself.
Il must have killed the horrid brute"
g,td no land a good lob too Probably