e sure I
shall never get the better of; my hand has been shaky more or less ever
since." "What frightened you?" said I. "I had better not tell you,"
said the old man, "or you may be frightened too, lose your virtue, and be
no longer good for the business." "I don't care," said I; "I don't
intend to follow the business: I daresay I shall be an officer, like my
father." "Well," said the old man, "I once saw the king of the vipers,
and since then--" "The king of the vipers!" said I, interrupting him;
"have the vipers a king?" "As sure as we have," said the old man--"as
sure as we have King George to rule over us, have these reptiles a king
to rule over them." "And where did you see him?" said I. "I will tell
you," said the old man, "though I don't like talking about the matter. It
may be about seven years ago that I happened to be far down yonder to the
west, on the other side of England, nearly two hundred miles from here,
following my business. It was a very sultry day, I remember, and I had
been out several hours catching creatures. It might be about three
o'clock in the afternoon, when I found myself on some heathy land near
the sea, on the ridge of a hill, the side of which, nearly as far down as
the sea, was heath; but on the top there was arable ground, which had
been planted, and from which the harvest had been gathered--oats or
barley, I know not which--but I remember that the ground was covered with
stubble. Well, about three o'clock, as I told you before, what with the
heat of the day and from having walked about for hours in a lazy way, I
felt very tired; so I determined to have a sleep, and I laid myself down,
my head just on the ridge of the hill, towards the field, and my body
over the side down amongst the heath; my bag, which was nearly filled
with creatures, lay at a little distance from my face; the creatures were
struggling in it, I remember, and I thought to myself, how much more
comfortably off I was than they; I was taking my ease on the nice open
hill, cooled with the breezes, whilst they were in the nasty close bag,
coiling about one another, and breaking their very hearts, all to no
purpose: and I felt quite comfortable and happy in the thought, and
little by little closed my eyes, and fell into the sweetest snooze that
ever I was in in all my life; and there I lay over the hill's side, with
my head half in the field, I don't know how long, all dead asleep. At
last it seemed to me that