The Conway log cabin., 1901-04-09
THE MAYORS NEST.
Improbable Story Questioned by the
 Matter-of-Fact Englishman.

Very well, sad the mayor, I'll tell you about it."
 The guests around the table became silent, and the Englishman adjusted his single eyeglass with great nicety and peered earnestly at his host.
 Fifty years ago, when first came here," began the old gentleman, "the country was bleak and barren will derness, trackless and desolate, but not so dreary as my youthful feelings. A blow of fate had deprived me at once of my parents and my fortune, and lovers quarrel had separated me, as l thought, forever, from my sweetheart in the east. was a jejune misanthrope, very. Timon, living alone, subsisting on the spells of my traps.
 "Once l was roaming moodily through long path that my feet had made to the farthest of my traps, thinking of my gloomy life, the waste of my splendid youth and edu- cation and the hopelessness of the future, my ears caught faint rattling in the bushes. Stopping to examine the cause, found that young rattle snake had become imprisoned by d fallen branch, and was exhausting itself in its struggles for release.
 'My first impulse was to kill the little reptile, but on refecting that it had ddone me no harm and was fellow in distress, 1 was moved to compass sion. So 1 lifted the limb, allowing it to escape"
 The eyeglass was gleaming with in tense interest. SIt's quite strange" said the Englishman, "but-"
 Pardon me-" said the mayor, ''there is more to come.
 Some 20 years after this episode chance guided my footsteps along that same forsaken path. But what d change in my fortunes! :! Around my log hut and half-cleared homestead had grown populous and opulent city. My hut was turned to a man. sion, my clearing to valuable real estate The maiden in the east had relented, her lovely children were growing up around me. I had be- come not only the richest man of the community, but the mayor of the city. My horses, my carriages, my house, my massive plate, were the pride and admiration of my bucolic neignbors, l was musing of all this as trod that old, deserted path, when I stopped, petrified with fear, my blood congealed, my hair rising from its roots. Directly under my lifted foot was an enormous rattlesnake.
 'I will tax your patience but mo- ment longer" continued the mayor.
 'As I stood there like statue the brute uncoiled its monstrous length, wound about my body and climbed slowly to my shoulder, when it be- gan to lick my face with gentle sib- ilation expressive of its affection. l then perceived that this must be the serpent which 1 had rescued from dis aster so long ago, and that l had noth- ing to fear, beyond an excess of grat- itude. smoothed its shiny coils and talked to it caressingly for some mo- ments, until it descended to the ground and hastened away with a backward look or two, as if to bid me await its return. In but a short time she reappeared, followed by 27 young ones, which she had evidently brought to gaze upon the face of her former benefactor It was quaint and touching spectacle, but the hour waxed late and, after kindly batting the head of each of the young ones, l directed my steps toward the city. They would not be forsakep, however, and, with little detours in the bushes, always returning to gambol at my feet, they accompanied me to the very door of my mansion, which they in- sisted upon entering. Not wishing to alarm my family, put them into the dihing-room with large pan of warm milk, and retired for the night. At two in the morning was aroused by a vociferous clamor from below, Rush ing to the dining-room, l found that three burglars had entered the win dow to rob me of my silver, but the mother snake had seized them and was beating. their heads upon the floor, while the 21 little ones had their tails out of the window rattling for the police"
 The eyeglass glared triumphantly
 "Quite phenomenal" remarked the Englishman, 'but improbable As l was about to say, once knew snake hunter who assured me that there were no rattlesnakes in this state" IN. Y. Ledger.