Champion Snake Stories.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 419, 19 October 1889, Page 3

Champion Snake Stories.

' Do you want some items about snakes ?' asked an agricultural-rural-looking gentleman of the editor the other day. ' We have no objection, it they are fresh and true,' responded the editor. ' Exactly,' replied the farmer ; ' these items are both. Nobody knows 'em but me. I have just come from America and am an American, so you may be sure they are true. I have a farm there with lots of snaKes on it. Near the house is a pond. My little girl jumped into the pond, and would have been drowned if it had not been for a snake. The snake seen her, and brought her ashore. The particular point about this item is the way he d'd it.' ' How was it ?' asked bhe editor. 'It was a black snake, about thirty feet long, and he just coiled the middle of himself around herneck, so she couldn't swallow any water, and swam ashore with his head and tail. Is that a good item ?' ' First class. ' ' You can spread it out, you know. After they got ashore, the girl patted the snake on the head, and it went oft* pleased as Punch. Ever since then he comes to the house regular at meal times, and she feeds him on pie. Think you can make anything: of that item V 1 Know any more ?' ' Yes. I got a baby six months old. He's a boy. We generally sit him out on the grass of a morning, and he hollers like a bull all day ; at least he used to do, bub he don't any more. One morning we noticed he wasn't hollering, and wondered what was up. When we looked there was a rattlesnake coiled up in front of him scan-, ning his features. The boy was grinning, and the snake was grinning. > The snake then turned his tail to the baby, and backed his rattle right into the baby's fist.' ' What did the baby do ?' ' Why. he just rattled that tail so you could hear it three-quarters of a mile, and the snake lay there and grinned. Every morning we found the snake here, until one day a bigger snake came, and the baby played with the rattle just the same till the first snake came back. He looked thin, and I reckon he had been sick, and sent the other to take his place. Will that do for an item ?' 'Immensely. Do you think of any more ?' ' Ain'b you got enough ? Lemme think. Oh, yes. One Sunday me and my wife was going to church, and she dropped her garter somewhere. She told me about it, and I noticed a little striped snake running alongside and listening to her. Bimeby he made a spring, and just wound himself round her stocking, or tried to, but he didn't fetch it.' 'Why nob?' 'He wasn't long enough. He jumped down, and shook his head and started off. We hadn'b gone tnore'n a quarter of a mile when we see him coming out of the woods just ahead of us. He was awfully hob and tired,' and he had another snake with him twice as big as he was. They looked afr my wife a minute- and said something to each other, and then the big snake went right to the place where bhe garter belonged. He wrapped right round it, put his bail in hia mouth, and then went' to sleep. We've gob him yet, We use him to hold the stove-pipe tosrebher when we put bhe stove up. Is thab any use as an item?' " Certainly,' said theeditor, as he sighed to think of bhe preponderance of Pigottiam in the world.