The Winslow mail., 1915-06-12
The Stories of
Famous Novels
By Albert Pay.on Terhune
opyright. 1913, by The Press Publish
ing Co.
ELSIE VENNER 3
BY oliver Wendell Holmes

rounded, with peculiar undulatiOn of
movement. Black, piercing eyes, not
large; diamond eyes"
That is Dr. Holmes description of
Elsie Venner. one Of the strangest
heroines in literature.
Elsies father was the rich man of
Rockland, little New England village
with a huge mountain behind it, The
mountain was alive with ratt1esnakes.
One ledge of rock was so infested with
these reptiles that no villager dared
set foot on it, They often spread ter
ror by creeping down into RockLand
itself. A rattlesnake eighteen years
earlier had bitten Elsie Venner's
mother.
Stimulants and cautery had been en-
ployed at once, and Mrs. Venner had
seemingly recovered from the bite. A
few months later Elsie had been born
When the child was a few weeks old
her mother died. Elsie grew to glor-
ious young womanhood but from in
fancy she had stood apart and alone
She had no friends. The village was
full of strange stories about her
For one thing, hideous serpentine
birthmark surrounded her neck; a
mark she always covered with neck
lace. Also her black diamond" eyes
had hypnotic, snakelike power. Her
motions were snakelike, too. In winter
she was dull and languid, seldom stir
ring from the fire. In the hot months
of summer she seemed infused with
weird power and energy. At such
times she would vanish from home for
days, and would roam alone on the
mountains, treading fearlessly upon
Rattlesnake Ledge and sleeping in it's
reptile-flled caves. Folk called her
the "Snake Girl
Elsie's cousin, young Dick Venner,
used to play with her as a child. But
once when he made her angry she bit
him on the wrist. A doctor was sum-
moned in haste. And the wound was
treated as though for rattlesnake bite
The boy got well, but the teeth marks
were never effaced from his flesh
Another phase of Elsie's condition
was her hysterical dread of white ash
leaves. This bore out the local tradi-
tion that rattlesnakes will never go
near white ash tree.
A governess was engaged for the
wayward girl Elsie hated the COVER
ness and tried to poison her. Then it
was decided to send the girl to school.
There she proceeded to try her hyp-
motto power on Helen Darley, one of
her teachers. By simply looking at the
teacher Elsie could make Helen leave
the platform and come down to her
desk.
The assistant principal of the school
was a medical student, Bernard Lang
don-good looking, clever, kind of
heart. And Elsie fell in love with him
At first he did not notice this. Then
he ignored it, for he felt no spark Of
love for the uncanny girl. Indeed he
was inflicted by the nameless physical
repulsion with which, in spite Of her
beauty, she inspired nearly everyone.
This feeling was but intensified once
when a rattlesnake was about to at
tack LangdOn during ramble on the
mountain and was driven away by q
look from Elsie Venner's black eyes.
Dick Venner came back to Rockland
about this time, after rowing career
in South America. Dudley Venner, his
uncle, Elsie's father, was rich. By
marrying Elsie the young adventurer
would be made comfortable for life
SO Dick wooed Elsie. She hated him.
He saw she loved Langdon and he
made fun of her for her choice. She
retaliated by trying to poison Dick, as
she had tried to poison the governess
Dicks suspicious were reused and he
avoided the trap.
But he saw that matters must come
to a climax at once. And he decided
to put the schoolmaster out of the way
He attempted one night to strangle
Langdon with lariat he had brought
from South America Langdon frus-
irated the attempt and, with the help
of a passing villagef, captured and
bound the would-be murderer. To
spare his relatives feelings Dick was
not prosecuted, but was packed off to
regions unknown.
Meantime, SuDLl6 cnanSe nad Doon
taking place in Elsie The family doc
tor explained it by saying the rattle
snake characteristics were dying out,
leaving in her only the better side of
her dual nature. But the evil element
had taken so strong a hold upon her
system that she could not outlive its
death. She pined away, very gradual
ly: the hard diamond" light in her
eyes being replaced by softer glow.
At length she died. At her death they
removed the golden necklace she had
always worn to conceal the serpent on
her throat. Her old nurse cried aloud:
"The Lord be praised! He has taken
away the mark She's fit TO meet His
holy angels now!"
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES was
born in Cambridge, Mass, August 29,
1909. He was educated for the bar at
Harvard College, from which he grad
,1atod in 1900 Giving IN the law for