didn't, so I reckon they must have skedaddled off in the bushes. Perhaps
they're old enough to take care of themselves, though I hope they don't
live to grow up. If there's one thing I detest on earth it's a poisonous
snake."

"Me, too!" piped up Bandy-legs; "but then, you see, I never thought this
one was loaded. Yes, I just reckoned she'd come to see what I was doin'
with her bunch of youngsters, and I kept on jollyin' her. Thought I was
havin' fun, boys, but never again, you hear me!"

"Want to take these rattles along, Bandy-legs?" asked Owen, who had
severed the horny looking appendage at the end of the tail; "it'll serve
to remind you of what a silly job it is to play with a snake that you've
never been properly introduced to."

"Not for me," replied the other, with a little shudder. "I'd just hate
to have my folks know how foolish I was. Keep 'em, and hang the thing up
in the clubhouse, boys."

"Sure," interrupted Steve; "do for a dinner horn some time; better than
Japanese wind bells to make music."

"Ugh! I'll never hear it without thinkin' of the grand scare I got when
Max here shouted out the way he did," admitted the one who had been the
cause for all this commotion.

"The canoe's ready for business at the old stand," announced Max, "and
don't be afraid that there's going to be any trouble again with that
same leak. I've fixed that plug in good and strong, Bandy-legs. Now
let's be off!"