SLEEPLNG WITH SERPENTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1251, 11 October 1884, Page 3

SLEEPLNG WITH SERPENTS.

Professor Bell, the Smithsouian Institution's agent, shipped hii last collection of snakes to the North recently and already baa hi* museum full again. It is surprising how rapidly they become domesticated under his treatment. During the recent cold snap soAiu <>f tiiem'that he turned loose in his room at night climbed up the bedposts and coiled themselves up in his blankets. He felt them hunting for cosy spots about his legs, and knew that he ought to get up and provide them with some loose straw, but a eleepy man in a warm bed oa a cold night is not overobliging, and the Professor snored on musically, as is his custom. The reptiles crowded upon one another, quarrelled, fought a little, hissed, but the Professor did not budge ; only now and then he would wake slightly and cry softly: "Whist, boys; be easy, boys." At hut a big coachwhip snako found an opening near the edge of the blankets and slowly glided in. There was a gentle waviug up and down of the bedclothes ns the big claybank serpent moved about, get'iDg himself comfortable, when suddenly he clapped about two-thirds of his frigid length against the wa-m legs of the professor- The professor made a violent rem irk, He eat up in bed, gathered a handful of snakes in each hand, depositing them oarefullv on the floor, then throwing bajk the bedclothes he administered a kick that sent the coach whip flying through the darn to the other end of the room, enountering the lamp in its aerial flight and knocking from its bracket on the wall the fragile skull of an ancient Florida, mound builder. " Freeze and be hanged !" exclaimed the irate pr.fesaor. "I'll share my bed with you, but you shan't drive me out." He drew the blankets him. A few minutes later several pairs of little red eyes moved up the bedposts on either side, and soon the snake herder and snakes, in one couch, were lost in peaceful slumber. —Jacksonville, Fla., Times.