passing along the road to school, on foot, was observed by some of his
companions in the rear to pause suddenly and look down. His fellows
intent on their conversation, were several minutes coming up; but when
they did so they witnessed a veritable case of fascination--for the
young man was looking intently into the eyes of a large rattlesnake,
coiled at his feet; nor could the voices of all his friends arouse
him. Being jerked back with some violence, he instantly recovered his
senses, but seemed to be puzzled to recall the circumstances connected
with his first view of the snake. After a mental effort he explained,
while the cold sweat poured from his face, and his limbs were flaccid
as an infant's, that the sound of a rattle had caused him to stop
short--that a pleasant halo danced before his eyes, and sweet sounds
met his ears--and that from that instant until the conclusion of the
trance, "he was as happy as he ever expected to be!"

But now for the hardest knock of conviction. I will give it in the
language of the original narrator--premising that opponents to the
theory of serpent attraction auist knock under, or flatly contradict
my tale. In the latter event, I shall be compelled to settle the
question as Hodginson did his lawsuit, "by exhibiting the skin and
parading the witnesses."

"In the month of April, a few years back," commences the witness, "I
took my eldest chap, an eight year old boy, but stout and bold enough
for a twelve year old--and sauntered down to Beech river, to spend the
evening [Footnote: Evening, in this place, signifies from noon until
dark; that's the Southern and Western notion always.] fishing. Finding
a large beech, whose spreading roots formed a natural easy chair, with
arms to it, I threw my line into the stream, and myself into the
cavity, to take the thing deliberately as I generally do on such