The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-03

dangerous unless the light is good and an experienced bushman be of the party. The usual plan is to watch and wait. The sides of the cottage were built of round timber, and there was a likelihood on each occasion that this particular snake had wriggled through and out.
 Minnie, a child of three, was more vivaciOus than usual next morning. She sat on an opossum rug on the floor of the room adjoining the break fast room, where most of the family were collected. Her chattering excit- ed comment. Stay" whispered her father; something strikes me. She's talking to something. and bet it's the snake"
 With his riding whip in his hand he stepped softly to the open door and peeped in. The snake had its head in Minnies lap and was being fed with little snips eff a square of lump sugar. It was black snake of a dangerous size, and the father was doubtful how to act. If alarmed it might viciously at- tack the child. He surveyed the pos sible means of escape, and whispered to his wife to call Minnie. The child moved at the call, and the snake drew back and made a sudden dive toward a chest of draws at the opposite wall. That was what was wanted, and the riding whip did the rest.
 A friend of mine tells of an incident of similar kind. At Koondrook, a little settlement in Victoria, a woman heard her child, IS months old, laugh 1 ing as if she were having, great fun. The child was supposed to be asleep in bed. The mother went to the room and found the child scrambling over the bed after something she could not see.
 That happened several times. Once, however, the mother went in suddenly and heard something drop off the bed. Looking hurriedly under the bed, she distinctly saw large snake that turn ed upon her with evident intention to fight. When the husband came home he pulled up the boards of the floor, but there was no sign of the snake. | Next day, however, snake and child were discovered lying together on the floor, the child asleep. and the snake apparently SO That night the husband tried plan. He placed candle on the floor alongside of the child, and asked the wife to play 8 slow air on the harmonium. Movements of the snake could be heard, but the rustic
 was all he vouchsafed. =. ! Next night the child was similarly posted, and the mother tried the eff fleets of working her sewing machine
 The sound was too tempting. The snake wriggled to the child with ala crity, and was promptly despatched
 by the father. It was a tiger. snake, nearly five feet in length, and when killed was fondled by the child as an
 old pet. IT,,
 We never hear in the bush of a snake biting a young child. On the
 other hand, numbers of cases are re-
 counted in which mothers have laid
 infants on the bed in dark rooms and l discovered 8 second later that a snake
 was underneath the child. The snatch ling up of the child released the snake, and invariably the trouble ended there. 3EsHE .. l A governess in charge of a child was lfond of sitting among the rocks at the seashora. She read good deal, and
 was contented so long as the, child played about without making noise. At Hast, perhaps she had finished her book,
 it struck her as strange that at that lpartlou!aI place among the rocks the child was always preternaturally quiet. She rose slowly and glided to pro- Ijecting boulder, behind which she
 knew the child had crawled. The child
 was motionless on hand and knees,
 and was staring at some small object | beside tuft of withered grass.
 1 The governess watched intently for ! several seconds. Gradually she made out two beadlike eyes, like points of
 fire, and with further inspection was able to define the small head of snake
 similar in color to the withered grass.
 A hole ran under the rock, and the
 snakes head alone protruded. The pu- Ipils of the child's eyes were dilated, but in other respects it was half as-
 leep. This would help the claims of lthose who endow snakes with power to facinate birds. But there is nothing to- indicate that the snake in question lmeant injury to the child.
 A bush clergyman visited me on one occasion, and, dismounting, threw his lsaddlebag on the veranda. The flap Hell open and a green whip snake pop lped out. It happened that there was
 no weapon handy, and the snake dis
 appeared under the house. The clergy
 Imam swas greatly frightened. He cal culate5 that the snake must have heeI1 in his bag during his last ten mile ,ride, and reflected that he had put ihis hand in several times for one arti- lcle or another. He carefully examined This right hand for marks of fangs, and became treasured when not a single
 scratch could be discovered.
 We kept sharp lookout for some days for the snake, and renewed ac. lquaintance with it under singular cir.