I, 'that's meditating
an attack on me.'

"'Put your foot on it, man,' says he.

"'It's mighty fine,' says I, 'and I in my bare feet.'

"So the corporal tells Pat Murphy, my right-hand man, to tackle the
baste. I could see Pat didn't like the job ayther, yer honor, but he's
not the boy to shrink from his duty; so he comes and he takes post on
the form by my side, and just when the cratur is making up his mind to
charge us both, Pat jumps down upon him and squelched it.

"Shure, yer honor, the sight of such bastes is enough to turn a
Christian man's blood."

"The spider had no idea of attacking you, Kelly," Peters said,
laughing. "It might possibly bite you in the night, though I do not
think it would do so; or if you took it up in your fingers."

"The saints defind us, yer honor! I'd as soon think of taking a tiger
by the tail. The corporal, he's an Englishman, and lives in a country
where they've got snakes and reptiles; but it's hard on an Irish boy,
dacently brought up within ten miles of Cork's own town, to be exposed
to the like.

"And do ye know, yer honor, when I went out into the town yesterday,
what should I see but a man sitting down against a wall, with a little
bit of a flute in his hand, and a basket by his side. Well, yer honor,
I thought maybe he was going to play a tune, when he lifts up the top
of the basket and then began to play. Ye may call it music, yer honor,
but there was nayther tune nor music in it.

"Then all of a suddint two sarpents in the basket lifts up their
heads, with a great ear hanging down on each side, and began to wave
themselves about."

"Well, Tim, what happened then?" Charlie asked, struggling with his
laughter.

"Shure it's little I know what happened after, for I just took to my
heels, and I never drew breath till I was inside the gates."

"There was nothing to be frightened at, Tim," Charlie said. "It was a
snake charmer. I have never seen one yet, but there are numbers of
them all over India. Those were not ears you saw, but the hood. The
snakes like the music, and wave their heads about in time to it. I
believe that, although they are a very poisonous snake and their bite
is certain death, there is no need to be afraid of them, as the
charmers draw out their poison fangs when they catch them."

"Do they, now?" Tim said, in admiration. "I wonder what the regimental
barber would say to a job like that, now. He well nigh broke Dan
Sullivan's jaw, yesterday, in ge