house. Otto Fuchs was the first one we met.
He was sitting on the edge of the cattle-pond,
having a quiet pipe before supper. Antonia
called him to come quick and look. He did not
say anything for a minute, but scratched his
head and turned the snake over with his boot.

"Where did you run onto that beauty,
Jim?"

"Up at the dog-town," I answered laconi-
cally.

"Kill him yourself? How come you to have
a weepon?"

"We'd been up to Russian Peter's, to bor-
row a spade for Ambrosch."

Otto shook the ashes out of his pipe and
squatted down to count the rattles. "It was
just luck you had a tool," he said cautiously.
"Gosh! I wouldn't want to do any business
with that fellow myself, unless I had a fence-
post along. Your grandmother's snake-cane
wouldn't more than tickle him. He could
stand right up and talk to you, he could. Did
he fight hard?"

Antonia broke in: "He fight something aw-
ful! He is all over Jimmy's boots. I scream
for him to run, but he just hit and hit that
snake like he was crazy."

[[54]]

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