ull-snake asleep and lugged him home, hanging over
his shoulder. We sewed a flannel collar on the snake and picketed him
out until he got used to the place. And around and around and around
squirmed that snake until we near got sick at our stummicks watching
him. All day long, turning and turning and turning.

"'Darn it,' says I, 'I like more variety.' So that day, when I was
cutting close to a timbered slew, out pops an old bob-cat and starts to
open my shirt to see if I am her long-lost brother. By the time I got
her strangled I had parted with most of my complexion. Served me right
for being without a gun. The team run away as soon as I fell off the
seat and I was booked to walk home. I heard a squeal from the bushes,
and here comes a funny little cuss. I liked the look of him from the
jump-off, even if his mother did claw delirious delight out of me. He
balanced himself on his stubby legs and looked me square in the eye,
and he spit and fought as though he weighed a ton when I picked him
up--never had any notion of running away. Well, that was Robert--long
for Bob.

"The style that cat spread on in the matter of growing was simply
astonishing; he grew so's you could notice it overnight. At the end of
two months he was that big he couldn't stand up under our sheet-iron
cook-stove, and this was about the beginning of our family troubles.
Tommy, the snake, was a good deal of a nuisance from the time he
settled down. You'd have a horrible dream in the night--be way down
under something or other, gasping for wind, and, waking up, find Tommy
nicely coiled on your chest. Then you'd slap Tommy on the floor like a
section of large rubber hose. But he bore no malice. Soon's you got
asleep he'd be right back again. When the weather got cool he was
always under foot. He'd roll beneath you and land you on your
scalp-lock, or you'd ketch your toe on him and get a dirty drop. I
don't think I ever laughed more in my life than one day when Billy come
in with an armful of wood, tripped on Tommy, and come down with a
clatter right where Judge Jenkins, the hawk, could reach him. The
Judge fastened one claw in Billy's hair and scratched his whiskers with
the other. Gee! The hair and feathers flew! Bill had a hot temper
and he went for the hawk like it was a man. The first thing he laid
his hand on was Tommy, so he used the poor snake for a club.
Wind-River and me were so weak from laughing that we near lost two