Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-15
SNAKE THAT CAME TO LIFE.

Mother entered the room just in time to
hear Jack say to Dolly: Look out. a great
big black bear may rush from behind the
door,
Jack" said mother, never let me hear
you say such thing to your sister again.
In the first place, 1t is not true: and in the
second. It's very unmanly to friIhten little
girl. You put me in mind of something
that happened years and years ago when l
was your age. and went to school way off
! in little country town.
Dolly and Jack left off their play i'm
mediately. for mother was famous story
teller.
I'm this town." began mother there
lived two boys named Durant, who were
little terrors. and always in some kind Of
mischief They didn't really mean to be
naughty, but they were; and they gave
everybody lots of trouble. Well, one spring
a new boy moved to town. His name was
william Sande, and he at once became a
special object of derision to the Durant
boys: for he had beautiful yellow curls,
which his mother refused to have cut off
though he was quite big boy. The Du-
rants had their heads shaved of course
Willie himself hated those curls
Most of us school children used to tease
MIN. but nobody was so bad as the Du-
rants. and they were awful. They called
him Mile instead of Willie. and said he
| hateful that Willie's life was anything but
pleasant He did look like a little girl and
wasn't much of fighter, for he never an
swered back; but he had a deal of pluck, as
you Will see before finish my story.
One day the Durant boys told the rest
Of us that they had fine joke to play on
Miss Mile They said they were going to
XIII snake. and put it on a stump some
where and then tell Willie it was a very
poisonous beast, and dare him to kill it.
SO that afternoon all We naughty little
chlldren gathered together for snake hunt
through the woods, and finally We found a
copperhead. which the boys killed. Now
eopperhead. you know, in perhaps one of the
most poisonous of snakes, and the bite is
almost always fatal
This snake the boys coiled I'D on q
stump; they stuck his head up in a most
lifelike attitude. and then we ali went home
and forgot all about it. .. 'H.'
The next day at noon the boys proposed
walk through the woods, and to WIiIies
delight asked him to come along. We soon
reached the place where the snake was,
and suddenly Ned Durant called out: Good
gracious. there's a great big snake coied
up on that stump -.
Willie jumped as il he had been shot,
and said. 'WhereT rather family. ,ts g., -.
Right in front Of you.' answered Ned.-T
dare you to kill him. Here's stick
Coward
his face turning scarlet with wrath Here,
give me the old stick. I'll kill him. He's
only harmless thing anyway. even though
he Is big. Willie didn't know much about
snakes, and probably couldn't" have told
an anaconda from a garter snake, or he
never would have made such a foolish re-
mark. s.,.,.-|-,..,. e..
He approached the enemy with a brave
step and brought the stick down hard In
an instant something very strange hap
pened. -
The stump seemed covered with a with
ing mass, and quick as lightning a long neck
lifted itself and struck at Willie with its
forked tongue. He screamed ard turned H6
run Ned Duranf was the first to get his
wits back, for the rest of us stool and
CAPPED at the unusual spectacle of. seeing a
Quick! cried Ned. seizing Willie tr the
arm. run for your life to the doctor: You've
been bitten by a copperhead and it's deaL,y
poison Another boy grabbed Whites other
arm and they reached the doctor in a few
minutes. Fortunately 'the doctor was in;
and he worked over Willie for hours; the
boy did not whimper through all the pain.
II thinn that the Durant boys never play,
ed a practical joke again as long as they
and otter 1t was all over, they couldn't be
nice enough to Willie Sande for they were
always thinking that they might not have
had the chance to make up'
What really happened was this. The
dead snakes mate had come to look for
him. as they are often known to do, and
had SO coiled itself up on the stump that
we. thinking only Of the dead sna we had
left there. hadn't noticed the live one.
So" concluded mother, smiling, 'let us
remember not to taunt others; for others
when the critical moment comes"