tent on
a pile of rugs. The man took in the situation at a glance, and
came to Billy's rescue, making the snake uncoil itself by playing
on a kind of bagpipe, a queer, weird, monotonous piece of music.
This charmed the snake and it uncoiled itself from Billy and,
swaying its body, crawled toward the snake charmer.

The second that Billy felt its coils slip from his body, he took
a long breath and ran from the tent not even stopping to wiggle
his head in thanks for his preservation. Once outside, he made
his way back to his own tent where he lay down on his pile of
straw to snatch a little sleep before daylight, as unconcerned as
if nothing had happened.

[Illustration]

_Billy and the Snakes_

The next day after Billy's midnight prowl which was Saturday,
there was great commotion among the circus people, for the
leading lady accused her rival, the brunette, of coming into her
dressing room while she slept and destroying her blonde wig;
while the pop-corn man said thieves had been at his stand and
broken his glass case and eaten his pop-corn, beside they had
spilled all his lemonade that he had intended using the next day;
the night watchman was going to be discharged for not attending
to his business; then the Indian snake charmer came along and
told them the thief had visited his tent but his snakes had
frightened him away.

"And he was a big fellow I can tell you. I did not dare tackle
him."

"Oh my!" said the leading lady, "and to think he was in my tent
and I slept through it all."

"There, I told you I did not touch your old straw colored wig!"
said the brunette.

And they all said, "Do tell us all about it, what time of the
night did he come, and which way did he go when he ran away?"

"All right," said the snake charmer, with a twinkle in his eye
the others did not see, "sit down and I will tell you all about
it,--how I was awakened by a groan, and saw standing in the
middle of my tent, a huge fellow, with a long, white beard and
white, agonized face; for you must know that my boa-constrictor
was squeezing him to death."

"Oh, how awful! Weren't you frightened?" said the leading-lady.

"No, because I knew he could not touch me while the snake was
coiled around him. At first I thought I would let the boa kill
him, but he looked so awful with his eyes sticking out of his
head, as the snake squeezed him tighter and tighter, that I felt
sorry for him; so I began to play the music I always pl