ar apart, and so overgrown that they formed a deep
shade, like a heavy forest, which was most attractive when everything
outside was baking in the June sun. It was nearly noon when we reached
the gate, and looking into a place

"So curtained with trunks and boughs
That in hours when the ringdove coos to his spouse
The sun to its heart scarce a way could win,"

we could not resist its inviting coolness; we went in.

As soon as we were quiet, we noticed that there were more robins than we
had heretofore seen in one neighborhood in that part of the world; for
our familiar bird is by no means plentiful in the Rocky Mountain
countries, where grassy lawns are rare, and his chosen food is not
forthcoming. The old apple-trees seemed to be a favorite nesting-place,
and before we had been there five minutes we saw that there were at
least two nests within fifty feet of us, and a grosbeak singing his
love song, so near that we had hopes of finding his home, also, in this
secluded nook.

The alighting of a bird low down on the trunk of a tree, perhaps twenty
feet away, called the attention of my friend to a neighbor we had not
counted upon, a large snake, with, as we noted with horror, the color
and markings of the dreaded rattler. He had, as it seemed, started to
climb one of the leaning trunks, and when he had reached a point where
the trunk divided into two parts, his head about two feet up, and the
lower part of his body still on the ground, had stopped, and now rested
thus, motionless as the tree itself. It may be that it was the sudden
presence of his hereditary enemy that held him apparently spellbound, or
it is possible that this position served his own purposes better than
any other. Our first impulse was to leave his lordship in undisputed
possession of his shady retreat; but the second thought, which held us,
was to see what sort of reception the robins would give him. There was a
nest full of young on a neighboring tree, and it was the mother who had
come down to interview the foe. Would she call her mate? Would the
neighbors come to the rescue? Should we see a fight, such as we had read
of? We decided to wait for the result.

Strange to say, however, this little mother did not call for help. Not
one of the loud, disturbed cries with which robins greet an innocent
bird-student or a passing sparrow hawk was heard from her; though her
kinsfolk sprinkled the orchard, she uttered not a sound. For a mom