The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1909-07-02
NV Cousin Orone McDOOble of BetZ-

NV Cousin Orone McDooble of Betz-
vile had a narrow escape from deatn
| last Wednesday night, and he might
be dead now, if it hadn't been for his
| %uuickness of mind, and his knowledge
of natural history. My Cousin Orone
had been spending a few hours at Slug
| Wilson's Palace bar in this village, and
about one o'clock in the morning he
started for home, and something In
| the sort of sinuous way he was wan
| dering up the street made him think OF
snakes. Perhaps he had had snakes in
mind before that; / don't know. Any
way, when he reached home he had
his mind pretty full Of snakes and cells
and lizards and reptiles and serpents
generally, and was feeling mighty wor-
ried about them, and thinking that
something ought to be lone about 1t
for the good Of the public, n just
then he heard his chickens squawking
in the hen house, and it came to his
mind that there might be a beacon
s~trictor or a python eating his best
| poultry that very minute. So he start
ed down the side path to his hen house
on a run.
Just as he got halfway there and
was passing under the apple tree at
full trot, a great big serpent swung
down out Of the tree and darted at
him. 1t missed his face by an inch,
but its long cold body struck him
across the cheek. and Cousin Orone
NfoDoohla foil Jjko a shot
The next morning he found that it
was only the rubber garden hose,
which his wife had draped over the
limb to dry, but ne didn't have the
slightest suspicion Of it as he lay I'M
der the tree, and he had a right to
be scared. Anybody would be scared
to have a slithy garden hose swinging
Just above his head that way, ready
any minute to drop down and bite.
| Nothing is so venomous as the bite
Of q garden-hose at one o'clock in the
morning.
Then suddenly a cold chill passed
over him. He realized that the gar
den-hose was trying to fascinate him
with it's g~littering ye, as serpents al
ways fascinate birds they mean to de-
your in a minute Of two. He tried to
take his eyes away, and he couldn't;
and he tried to f1utter his wings, and
he couldn't; and so he just uttered a
couple of m%ournful little chirps and
peeps and kept gazing at the cruel noz-
zle of the garden-hose, and hoped death
would be painless when the garden
hose swallowed him. But he couldn't
bear it. It got on his nerves. He
wept when he thought that he was
nothing but a poor little sparrow so
near his doom, and when he saw he
didn't have the slightest chance against
the willy serpent he thought he'd bet
ter be an ostrich, rather than a spar
row, for'he would have a better chance
in a fight for life. So he sQuawked
as near like an ostrich as he could,
and stuck his head in a water pail
that was handy, as ostriches always
hide their heads when danger threat
ems. Every little while he peeked out
to see II the serpent had gone away,
but it hadn't. There 1t hung with its
glittering eye on him every time.
II 1t hadn't been for Cousin Orons
McDooble's knowledge Of natural his
tory he would have been devoured by
the garden-hose long before that, but
knowing about ostriches. and turning
into one, had postponed his death, be-
cause a g~arden-hose has to swell up
considerably before 1t q swallow an
ostrich. And just then was when