Year: 1874

upon the two sleeping occupants of the
cradle, whose pleasant warmth had evi-
dently attracted the reptile.


went in and saw it there" whispered
my wife; and then, without taking nv ewes
for an instant from the snake, Whispered
the one word "gun," and she glided from
my side.


did not know then, but she told me
aftcrWard, how she had carried the little
boy to distance and given him some
flowers to play with while she crept back
to the hut, and reaching in at the kitchen
window brought me my gun, for had
not stirred. And now, as grasped the
piece in my hand, knowing as did that
1t was loaded, it seemed Of no use. for
dared not fire; Tut with trembling hands
| felt in my pockets to see if there was a
bullet in them, and then, softly pulling
out the ramro6 I unscrewed the cover Of
the worm, drew the wadding, reversed the
piece and let the shot fall pattering out,
when softly forced down the bullet upon
the powder, examined the cap and stood
ready, waiting for chance; for thought
that the shot might have scattered, and if
ever so little might have injured the
child instead of its enemy.


And there we stood for quite half an
hour, watching intently that horrible
beast completely nestled in the blanket,
expecting momentarily that the Eaby
would awake, while my hand trembled 50
that could not hold the gun steady. One
minute l was thinking that l had done
wrong in changing the charge, the next
the gun might miss fire, or that I might
slay my own child. A hundred horrible
thoughts entered my mind before little
Joe began to cry out to his mother, and
she glided away while muttered to N.Y.
self, "Thank Heaven!" for she was
spared from seeing what followed.


AS IT at one and the same moment the
child and the snake woke up. l saw the
baby's hand move, and its little arms
thrown out, while from the motion be-
meath the blanket I knew that it must
have kicked little. Then there was a
rapid movement in the cradle, and as l
glanced along the gun-barrel, taking aim,
there was the whole of the horrible rep
tile exposed to view, coil gliding on coil,
as it seemed to fill the whole cradle; had
my gun been charged with shot should
have fired so as to have disabled some
parts of its body; but with only single
bullet I felt that the head must be the
part attacked when opportunity offered.
Glide, glide, glide, one coil over another,
quickly and easily, as it were, untying its
knotted body, while now the head slowly
rose from where it had been lying and
crept nearer and nearer to the child's face,
the forked tongue darting in and out and
playing rapidly on either side of it's hid
eous mouth. l could see the glance Of
the snakes eyes, and expected every mo-
ment to hear the little one shrek in ter
ror as the lowered head rested over her
breast. But no, the child lay perfectly
still for few minutes, and then I stood
trembling in every limb as I saw the
snakes head drawn back, and then begin
to sway to and fro, and from side to side,
the glistening neck of the beast gently u,,-
dulating, whilst the tongue still darted in
and out of the DREADFUL looking mouth.


Now was the time when should have
fired, but was too unnerved; and laying
down my gun I seized my hoe, meaning
to attack the beast with its stout handle;
but my hand fell paralyzed at my side as
l saw the little one in the cradle smile
and laugh at the gently-undulat1ng head
Of the snake; while, as the agony grew
to be greater than could bear, in seeing
the little white hands try to catch at it as
it sWayed to and fro, my powers seemed
to come back. l snatched up the gun,
and as the snakes head was drawn back
preparatory to striking pulled the trig-
ger, when the sharp crack Of the percus-
sion cap alone followed-perhaps provi-
dentially, for in my trembling state I
might have injured the child. Then I
saw rapid wreathing of the coils in the
cradle, and as the tail of the snake glided
over the side everything around me
seemed to swim, and tried to catch at
the wall of the hut to save myself from
falling.


But that soon went off, and gazing in at
whereabouts Of my enemy, as recapped
and tapped the gun, so that the powder
might run up nipple.


The snake was nowhere to be seen, and
darting in I seized the child and carried
it out to its mother, when, now feeling
relieved of one horrible calamity, I ob-
tanned my shot-pouch from the kitchen,
rammed down charge upon the bullet,
and cautiously went in search of the rep
tile.


knew he must still be in the part of
the hut we used for a sleeping place, and
after cautiously peering about l came
upon the hole where it had taken refuge
AN opening between the roughly -sawn
planks laid loosely down to form floor !;
while, unless there was an outlet beneath
the woodwork, felt that the beast must
be there; and to make it more probable,
there was our cat, that we had bought a
kitten in Sydney, gazing with staring
eyes down at the hole.


Just then I heard a soft rustling be-
meath my feet, and as l looked down
could see between the two boards the
scaly body gliding along. The next mo.
ment there came the loud report of the
gun, the place was full of smoke, there
was loud scuffling noise, and as
looked down between the boards where
the charge had forced a passage through
there was no sign of the snake.


Harry, Harryr' shrieked my wife just
then, and on rushing out there was the
beast writhing about in the path, evil
IDENTIFY badly wounded, while some crushed
down flowers by the hut wall showed
plainly the place of communication. l
never saw snake writhe and twist as
that creature did, but I was too excited
then to feel afraid, and few blows from
the butt end Of my gun laid it so that
there was only little movement left in
its body, which did not stop for an hour
or two after had cut off its head with
an Ak.