myself," continued the second. "One day last summer it
was. We come on a big snake by Torrey Creek corral. The boys got betting
pretty lively that I dassent make my word good as to dealing with him,
so I loped my cayuse full tilt by Mr. Snake, and swung down and catched
him up by the tail from the ground, and cracked him same as a whip, and
snapped his head off. You've saw it done?" he said to the audience.

The audience nodded wearily.

"But the loose head flew agin me, and the fangs caught. I was pretty
sick for a while."

"It don't pay to be clumsy," said the first man. "If you'd snapped the
snake away from yu' instead of toward yu', its head would have whirled
off into the brush, same as they do with me."

"How like a knife-cut your scar looks!" said I.

"Don't it?" said the snake-snapper. "There's many that gets fooled by
it."

"An antelope knows a snake is his enemy," said another to me. "Ever seen
a buck circling round and round a rattler?"

"I have always wanted to see that," said I, heartily. For this I knew to
be a respectable piece of truth.

"It's worth seeing," the man went on. "After the buck gets close in, he
gives an almighty jump up in the air, and down comes his four hoofs in
a bunch right on top of Mr. Snake. Cuts him all to hash. Now you tell me
how the buck knows that."

Of course I could not tell him. And again we sat in silence for a
while--friendlier silence, I thought.

"A skunk'll kill yu' worse than a snake bite," said another, presently.
"No, I don't mean that way," he added. For I had smiled. "There is a
brown skunk down in Arkansaw. Kind of prairie-dog brown. Littler than
our variety, he is. And he is mad the whole year round, same as a dog
gets. Only the dog has a spell and dies but this here Arkansaw skunk
is mad right along, and it don't seem to interfere with his business in
other respects. Well, suppose you're camping out, and suppose it's a hot
night, or you're in a hurry, and you've made camp late, or anyway you
haven't got inside any tent, but you have just bedded down in the open.
Skunk comes travelling along and walks on your blankets. You're warm. He
likes that, same as a cat does. And he tramps with pleasure and comfort,
same as a cat. And you move. You get bit, that's all. And you die of
hydrophobia. Ask anybody."

"Most extraordinary!" said I. "But did you ever see a person die from
this?"

"No, sir. Never happened to. My cousin at Bald Knob did."

"Died?"