stammering--but it seemed anything but funny to them then. "Let's g-get
out!"

"Second the motion," cried Betty, with a wry little twist to her mouth,
being, as usual, the first to recover her self control. "I can't see any
sense in lingering."

A few seconds later they had gathered up their belongings and jumped
thankfully into the road--out of sight of that sinister body still
writhing in the grass.

It was not until they had climbed into the car and were whirling over the
smooth road at a rapid rate that they began to feel like themselves again.

"I guess that was one of the narrowest escapes we ever had," said Mollie
over her shoulder with a laugh that was still a little unsteady. "I guess
we won't go picnicking in the woods alone again for quite some time."

"But I didn't know there were any snakes around here," said Grace
wonderingly, and, it must be admitted, still with a little quaver in her
voice.

"There aren't many," Betty explained, "Allen told me that poisonous snakes
of any sort had been so rarely seen around these parts that people thought
the stories of them were made up. He said they always looked suspiciously
at the bearers of the snake tales, shrugged their shoulders, winked, and
asked each other to guess where So-and-So had been the night before."

"Goodness," cried Mollie. "I suppose we'll never dare to tell it then.
They'll think we are--"