."

"Are you sure you've recovered enough to attend to business?" asked the
brother.

"Yes, quite sure. Besides, a snake is not business--it is pleasure. I
mean to send it to my old friend Balls, who has been long anxious to get
a specimen. I had asked a friend long ago to procure one for me, and
now that it has come I want you to pack it to go by post."

"By post!" echoed the brother.

"Yes, why not?"

"Because I fear that live snakes are prohibited articles."

"Get the Post-Office Directory and see for yourself," said the invalid.

The enormous volume, full six inches thick, which records the abodes and
places of business of all noteworthy Londoners, was fetched.

"Nothing about snakes here," said Enoch, running his eye over the
paragraph referring to the articles in question,--"`Glass bottles,
leeches, game, fish,' (but that refers to dead ones, I suppose) `flesh,
fruit, vegetables, or other perishable substances' (a snake ain't
perishable, at least not during a brief post-journey)--`nor any bladder
or other vessel containing liquid,' (ha! that touches him: a snake
contains blood, don't it?)--`or anything whatsoever which might by
pressure or otherwise be rendered injurious to the contents of the
mail-bags or to the officers of the Post-Office.'--Well, brother,"
continued Enoch, "I'm not quite sure that it comes within the forbidden
degrees, so we'll give it the benefit of the doubt and pack it. How
d'you propose doing it up? In a letter?"

"No, I had a box made for it before I was taken ill. You'll find it in
the shop, on the upper shelf, beside the northern diver."

The little box was brought, and the snake, which had been temporarily
consigned to an empty glass aquarium, was put into it.

"You're sure he don't bite, Fred, and isn't poisonous?"

"Quite sure."

"Then here goes--whew! what a lively fellow he is!"

This was indeed true. The animal, upwards of a yard in length, somewhat
resembled the eel in his efforts to elude the grasp of man, but Mr
Blurt fixed him, coiled him firmly down on his bed of straw and wadding,
pressed a similar bed on the top of him to keep him quiet, and shut the
lid.

"There; I've got him in all right. Now for the screws. He can't move
easily, and even if he could he wouldn't make much noise."

The box was finally secured with a piece of string, a label with the
address and the proper number of stamps was affixed, and then it was
committed to the care of Geo