ut say, there was one thing we forgot to reckon on--the appetite he
had been saving for about a year, and although the money came in faster
than ever, most of it went out to the rabbit men and pigeon fanciers.

"You know that when a snake swallows an animal you can see the bulge in
him for a long time, but you couldn't see any in old Pete. He was just
the same size all the way from his nose to the tip of his tail, for
there was no space between the animals.

"Things began to look pretty serious for us, for we had used up all the
available small live stock in the surrounding country, and the Rubes got
onto the fact that we were up against their game and raised the ante on
us for what was left. It's like taking candy from a child to sell a gold
brick to a farmer, but he everlastingly gets back at you if you have to
buy any of his produce. Hungry Joe and the man who invented the
green-goods game would be skinned to death if they had to buy a dozen
eggs from one of 'em.

"And all the time old Pete kept a constant procession of small animals
moving down his throat, regardless of expense, and if the supply ran
short he would look at Merritt so reproachfully that it made him feel so
bad he couldn't deliver his lecture for sobs. He worked the pathetic on
him, but if I came around there was no 'Only three grains of corn,
mother,' expression on his face; he would just rear up on his tail and
lambaste that glass trying to get at me. I had been living pretty well
during our prosperity and I guess I looked good to him, so rather than
have any hard feelings about it I stuck closer than ever to the front of
the house.

"We had rented a frame building in a little town up on the Hudson and
were showing him off in good form. Business was rushing and we had the
S. R. O. sign out all the time, but snake food was getting scarcer than
boiled lobsters during the cold snap last winter. The show had closed up
for night and we were trying to make dents in the front of the tavern
bar with our breast bones and laying in a stock of supplies, in case old
Pete should bite us.

"While we were discussing the best way to stimulate the rabbit-breeding
industry, 'biff--boom--bang,' went the town bell and the barkeep
commenced to peel off his coat and get into a red flannel shirt and a
fireman's helmet. It was one of those towns where they have a dude
volunteer fire department, which the boys all join for the socials in
the winter and to look pretty o