s such a cinch that Merritt, who looked after the snake while I did
the spieling and sold tickets on the front, commenced to get worried for
fear we should lose him.

"'Jim,' says he to me one morning when business was a little dull, 'I
believe there's something phony about the blame snake. He won't eat and
I've tempted him with the best I could get. I guess I'll run down to the
Bowery and get one of those snake sharps to come up and have a look at
him; I believe his teeth need filling.'

[Illustration: _"Just two little red dots on the back of his hand."_]

"I knew he was stuck on a girl that was doing a turn in a music hall
down that way, but business was dull, so I let him go without raising a
holler. The next day he comes back with a jaw-carpenter who claimed he
knew all about snakes and when he gets through looking at Pete's mouth
we felt pretty blue.

"'Canker!' says he. 'Your little snakelet may live a month.'

"Well, that put it up to us to get busy, so I did the spieling on the
outside until my voice gave out, and Merritt lied on the inside until he
was black in the face, telling the Rubes about how many sheep old Pete
swallowed every week. We had a lot of rabbits and doves with him in the
cage, hopping and flying around behind the thick glass front, and they
were real sociable with old Pete, who never batted an eye at 'em. At the
end of the month he was looking pretty thin and we were afraid he would
peg out any day. It was hard luck on us, for things were coming our way
and our bank rolls were getting good and plenty thick and they were all
'yellow boys,' from the case card to the wrapper. Our wads grew fatter
as Pete grew thinner, and we were looking for some easy mark to unload
him onto, when one morning Merritt comes running out, just as I was
staving off a farmer who had heard him lie and brought around a flock of
scabby sheep to sell to us for snake food.

"'Jim,' he yells, grabbing me by the shoulders and waltzing around like
a whirling dervish, 'we'll make Vanderbilt and Rockefeller look like
thirty cents; old Pete has swallowed every blame pigeon and rabbit in
the coop.'

"It seemed too good to be true, but when I went to have a look there was
not a feather nor a piece of fur to be seen and old Pete was examining
all the corners of the cage to see that he hadn't overlooked a bit. He
looked a whole lot better already, and Merritt and I began to discuss
what we should do with all our money.

"B