SLEEPING WITH SERPENTS.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4567, 24 August 1883, Page 3

SLEEPING WITH SERPENTS.

Professor Bell, the fcmiihsoniaa Institution's agent, shipped his last collecaon of. snakes to the North two weeks ago, and already has his museum full again. It is surprising how rapidly they become domesticated uuder his treatment, During the recent cold snap some of tbem tbat be 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 vrith some loose straw, but a sleepy man in a warm bed of 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 b dge; only now and then be would wake slightly and cry softly: ",Whist, boys ; be easy, boys." At last a big coachwhip snake found an opening near the edge of the blankets and slowly glided in. There was a gentle waving up and down of the bedclothes as the big ciaybank serpent moved about, getting himself comfortable, when suddenly he slapped about two thirds of his frigid length* again.si; the warm legs of the Professor. The Professor made a violent remark. He sat up in bed, gathered a ; handful of snakes in each hand, depositing *t&em carefully on the floor, then throwing Kick thobedclotbea he administered a kick that sent the coach whip flying through the dark to the other end of the room, encountering the lamp in its aerial flight and knocking from its bracket on the wall the fragile skall of an ancie'na Florida mound builder. " Freeze and be banged I" exclaimed the irate Professor. " I'll share my bed with you, but you shan't drive me out." He drew the blankets over him. A few moments later several pairs of little red eyes moved up the bed-posts on either side, and soon snake herder and snakes, in one couch, were lost in peaceful sleep. —Jacksonville, Fla., Times.