The Winslow mail., 1899-09-28

swallowed it, gorged it. Ralph could
see its undulous body distend.
"KiT it-kill it," Ralph cried, and
De Silva looked at him with extreme
sorrow and some contempt.
mo, dore," said he, sit was my last
honorable dore's treasure. The honor
able sir said it was the luck of the
bungalow-I say right in English? ?
Yes? The luck of the bungalow. 1t was
his treasure. Do not kill it,
The snake Tapped up the rest of the
milk, and in a twinkling slithered away
again. De Silva went back to his shelf,
and Ralph went to bed.
But he could not sleep. Above his
head that night and every night he
could hear the scamper of rats on the
ceiling cloth, and after them the rush of
the snake, and then a faint, fOrlorn
squeak, and he knew that Magog was
doing his duty as a colonial house cat.
The snake may have been doing his
duty, but Ralph could not bear the
thought of its nearness. He tried to
conquer the feeling, but he couldn't.
Poor Magog, used to being petted by
its last master, would peer out from the
ceiling cloth for hours in the evening,
while Ralph was trying to read, and
Ralph would look up from his books
and see its black head and quiet, watch
full eyes, and be Mortified. Between its
noise by night in the roof and its pres
ence in the evening, Ralph grew Sc
nervous that, in spite of De Silva's
warning and wishes, he tried to kill the
snake.
He sat one evening at his table with a
revolver in hand, and when Magog ap-
peared as usual, he took fair aim and
fired. The bullet went into the wall;
Magoe withdrew like flash. De Silva
came rushing.
81 think l hit the BRUTE said Ralph,
and pointed to spot OF blood on the
whitewashed wall.
80! honorable dore," said De Silva,
superstitious as his kind, lit was the
luck of the bungalow-say l it right
Ny last dore said Magog was the luck
of the bungalow"
And lie went away to his kitchen a.
sorrowing, but Ralph felt as if he had
done a good deed and rid the world OF
hideosity.
No more. came Magog to plague the
Young sinnadore. For many nights the
rats scampered over the ceiling cloth
withoutany pursuer. Ralph. in his lone
lv evenings, looked at the vacant crack
and congratulated himself.
"sI must have killed the horrid brute,
said he, ''and a good job, too. Probably
the rats avenged themselves by eating
him."
So the young sinnadore rested and
told, when he was at the perladore
bungalow for dinner, how he had mace
marvelously good shot at the snake
and ridded himself of an intolerable
nuisance.
"You oughtn't to have done that, ;"
said the periadore, smoking his che-
root and smiling upon the boy.
"Why not? I hate snakes-l abhor
them"
'Maybe, but they have their uses,
said the periadore. "Pll kill cobra or
tic-polonga quick as anybody, but !
would not kill a harmless ratsnake,
which is poisonless, and which, my lad.
has been cleaning out the rats and
mice from your bungalow for years. 10
put it mildly Gt was not only cruel, but
a mistake. Marigold, your predecessor,
cherished old Magog. He used to tell
me the brute was boss of the house,
and that if Magog were not there the
rats would make his life not worth iv-
ing"
Eyes, but the beast was so familiar
coming out at dinner to hang there
asking for mill>-ugh!"
"An right, old chap" said the perla'
dore; ''it's your bungalow, not mine.
Within a week of the night when
Ralph shot at the snake, there came
one of those tumultuous transforms
which are never seen anywhere eNcep'
in the tropical rainy seasons.
Try and picture to yourself the day
of Indictment, with the whole heavens
4umbling in, like a falling roof, on tor
of Won. with all the navies of the world
firing turret guns at you, with all the
lightning of the skies concentrating
upon you, with not a soul, white OF
black, near you, without a single
tongue to cry 'Here!" when your
tongue cries "Help!" without hand
to reach out to touch yours-try and
picture yourself a scene like that, and
you have some idea of the tempest in
which Ralph one lonely night in his
bungalow on the mountain went to bed
and slept-slept, utterly tired out from
working up the mountain with the
periadore and the coolies to strengthen
the dam which guided the hill stream
from its natural path to irrigate the
low-lying land.
Ralph's bedroom was off the sitting
room, under the same ceiling cloth,
and his bed lay close to the wall. He
was utterly tired, but he dreamed, and
in his dream somehow Magog the snake
was mixed up.
He dreamed the snake was following G
him revengefully; he dreamed it came
up to him, running; he dreamed ii
caught him; he dreamed that he fell
down; he dreamed that the snake coiled
and struck at his chest. He woke up