she looked up and said, "Billy, I'm not in the mood for playing."

[Illustration: Auntie May got a hatchet and made a chop at the snake]

I said, "Oh, Aunty, I'm not fooling. Quick, or it will land on your
head"; and she turned round and looked right at the snake and it looked
at her, and Aunty May gave a scream, and jumped away, and the snake
dropped down on the floor and commenced to wiggle behind the couch.

Then I tell you there was some fun. Aunty Edith came down just as Aunty
May got a hatchet and made a chop at the snake, but she never touched
it, and Aunty Edith wouldn't let me go behind the couch after him.

Mr. Taylor, who was coming along the towpath from the village (he
brought us the mail every morning), came down and asked, "What's up,
young feller? I heerd the wimminfolk screeching. What ye been up to?"

I told him I hadn't done anything. It was a snake. Then Mr. Taylor and
me pulled out the couch, but he wasn't there. We poked sticks behind the
pantry, but couldn't find him.

There was a big hole in the cement there, and Mr. Taylor said, "Sho, the
poor snake was more frightened than ye was, Miss May, and it's likely
he's down the river-bank by now." Then Aunty May and me told him how big
it was and what color, and he said, "I knew a couple of wimmin kept a
milk snake in their dairy for a pet. Maybe this feller wants pettin'."
Aunty May said he'd never get it from her, and she took a piece of tin
and a hammer and tacks and went to close up the hole, but Mr. Taylor
said, "Wait a minute, Miss May"; and he whispered to her, "Stand by a
minute. There's a letter here from the War Department to Miss Edith, and