Forest and Frontiers | Page 9

his first view of the snake. After a mental effort he explained, while the cold sweat poured from his face, and his limbs were flaccid as an infant's, that the sound of a rattle had caused him to stop short--that a pleasant halo danced before his eyes, and sweet sounds met his ears--and that from that instant until the conclusion of the trance, "he was as happy as he ever expected to be!"
But now for the hardest knock of conviction. I will give it in the language of the original narrator--premising that opponents to the theory of serpent attraction auist knock under, or flatly contradict my tale. In the latter event, I shall be compelled to settle the question as Hodginson did his lawsuit, "by exhibiting the skin and parading the witnesses."
"In the month of April, a few years back," commences the witness, "I took my eldest chap, an eight year old boy, but stout and bold enough for a twelve year old--and sauntered down to Beech river, to spend the evening [Footnote: Evening, in this place, signifies from noon until dark; that's the Southern and Western notion always.] fishing. Finding a large beech, whose spreading roots formed a natural easy chair, with arms to it, I threw my line into the stream, and myself into the cavity, to take the thing deliberately as I generally do on such occasions. There had been a rise in Beech river sufficient to muddy the water, and I knew the only chance was for cat (bull-pouts the Yankees call them,) so I chose a big hook and baited with a chunk of bacon, big enough for an eight-pounder at least. That hook was a Limerick, for which I had sent all the way to Porter, of 'The Spirit' --that hook I was never more to behold.
"The boy chose for himself a steep place about ten yards below me, and after sticking his pole in the mud, like a lazy fellow, as he is, amused himself by counting the stamens in some sorrel-flowers that grew thick thereabouts. I listened to his chatter for a while as he vacillated in his numbers--eight--nine--ten--twelve--until my own thoughts took an interesting turn, and I heard to more of him for several minutes. Then the sound of his voice again struck one, but a little distance further down stream, as he tailed out--'Oh, Pa, look!'
"Being well accustomed to his 'mares' nests,' I did not turn until he had repeated several times the same words, and it was the singularity of his tones at last that caused me to do it. His voice was indescribably plaintive, clear, but low, and each vowel sound was drawn out at great length, thus--' Oh-h-h-h, Pa-a-a-a, loo-oo-oo-ook, --with the diminuendo, soft as the ring of a glass vessel, when struck. I have heard Kyle, the flutist, while executing some of his thrilling touches, strike his low notes very much like it. Slewing myself partly round in my seat, I observed the little fellow standing bent forward, his hands stretched out before him as if shielding his face from a bush, while his whole body worked to and fro like the subjects in certain mesmeric experiments that I nave observed when first they are brought under 'the influence' of the operator. His face was partly turned from me, but the cheek, which I saw was pale as death, and his cloth cap was trembling on the back part of his head, as if forced there by the workings of the scalp.
"This was as much as I had time to oberve in the first hasty glance. Astonished at his actions, though not at all alarmed--or the first thought that occurred to me as that he was trying to catch a young rabbit--I called out in a half-jocular tone, well, bubby boy, what is it?' He made no reply, but continued that strange murmur of '--Oh-h-h, Pa-a-a, loo-oo-ook,' and took a couple of paces forward, not as though he wished to advance, but more in the style of a person who has leaned too far forward and moves his feet to recover the perpendicular. I arose, rather slowly, for it was a mere prompting of curiosity, and walking towards him, called out in a tone of some authority, 'John, come here!' Now I can say, without boasting, that my domestic government is thorough, and my children will promptly obey my commands in every thing, from the taking of a dose of quinine to the springing out of bed at daylight of a frosty morning. My surprise, therefore, was great to observe that the lad only answered my order, twice repeated, by the same melancholy cry, and another stumble forward.
"I was now thoroughly aroused. I hastened my own steps, for a horror came over me as though I