]
"The large garter snake which you saw, my dear lady, is comparatively
harmless. It lives on toads and frogs, and robs the nests of young birds,
and also pilfers the eggs. Its long forked tongue enables it to catch
insects of different kinds, it will even eat fish, and for that purpose
frequents the water as well as the black snake.
[Illustration: A BOY HERO]
"I heard a gentleman once relate a circumstance to my father that
surprised me a good deal. He was fishing one day in a river near his own
house, but, being tired, he seated himself on a log or fallen tree, where
his basket of fish also stood; when a large garter-snake came up the log,
and took a small fish out of his basket, which it speedily swallowed. The
gentleman, seeing the snake so bold as not to mind his presence, took a
small rock-bass by the tail, and half in joke held it towards it, when, to
his great surprise, the snake glided towards him, took the fish out of his
hand, and sliding away with its prize to a hole beneath the log, began by
slow degrees to swallow it, stretching its mouth and the skin of its neck
to a very great extent; till, after a long while, it was fairly gorged,
and then it slid down its hole, leaving its head and neck only to be
seen.
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