erimented on, or whether they
had any special power which could be made the subject of exact
observation.

For this purpose Mr. Bernard considered it necessary to get a live
crotalus or two into his possession, if this were possible. On inquiry,
he found that there was a certain family living far up the mountainside,
not a mile from the ledge, the members of which were said to have taken
these creatures occasionally, and not to be in any danger, or at least in
any fear, of being injured by them. He applied to these people, and
offered a reward sufficient to set them at work to capture some of these
animals, if such a thing were possible.

A few days after this, a dark, gypsy-looking woman presented herself at
his door. She held up her apron as if it contained something precious in
the bag she made with it.

"Y' wanted some rattlers," said the woman. "Here they be."

She opened her apron and showed a coil of rattlesnakes lying very
peaceably in its fold. They lifted their heads up, as if they wanted to
see what was going on, but showed no sign of anger.

"Are you crazy?" said Mr. Bernard. "You're dead in an hour, if one of
those creatures strikes you!"

He drew back a little, as he spoke; it might be simple disgust; it might
be fear; it might be what we call antipathy, which is different from
either, and which will sometimes show itself in paleness, and even
faintness, produced by objects perfectly harmless and not in themselves
offensive to any sense.

"Lord bless you," said the woman, "rattlers never touches our folks. I'd
jest 'z lieves handle them creaturs as so many striped snakes."

So saying, she put their heads down with her hand, and packed them
together in her apron as if they had been bits of cart-rope.

Mr. Bernard had never heard of the power, or, at least, the belief in the
possession of a power by certain persons, which enables them to handle
these frightful reptiles with perfect impunity. The fact, however, is
well known to others, and more especially to a very distinguished
Professor in one of the leading institutions of the great city of the
land, whose experiences in the neighborhood of Graylock, as he will
doubtless inform the curious, were very much like those of the young
master.

Mr. Bernard had a wired cage ready for his formidable captives, and
studied their habits and expression with a strange sort of interest. What
did the Creator mean to signify, when he made such shapes of