nd we knew he meant it. But
Mitch laughed and said: "Why would we tell it? Ain't we off for the
afternoon the same as you?"

So we went up and dug, but didn't find nothin'. And finally while we was
diggin' away, all of a sudden I saw a big snake in the weeds, all
coiled, and Mitch didn't see it at first. For all of a sudden it kind of
sprang out like a spring you let loose and bit Mitch on the hand. Mitch
gave an awful cry and began to suck the place where the snake bit him. I
says, "Don't do that, Mitch, you have a tooth out, and the pisen will
get in you there. What's the use of takin' it out one place and puttin'
it in another?" I grabbed a stick then and killed the snake. Mitch got
pale and began to be sickish and I was scared to death. And we ran down
to the road as fast as we could. Just then a wagon came along, and I
hollered to the man; so he came over and lifted Mitch into the wagon and
laid him down, and we put the snake into the wagon too, for I had
carried it along; and the man whipped up his horses fast so as to get
into town for a doctor.

Mitch's hand didn't swell, but he kept gettin' sicker and sicker, and
was moanin' and about to die; and the man drove faster and faster, for
he said the snake was one of the most pisen. When we got to the square,
Mr. Miller happened to be walkin' along. And the man drew up and said to
Mr. Miller, "Here's your boy, bit by a snake." "What kind?" says Mr.
Miller, all excited. "Here he is," said the man, and held up the snake.
Mr. Miller says: "Oh, fiddlesticks! That's a blue racer, as harmless as
the peck of a chicken." Then he took hold of Mitch and shook him and
says: "Here, Mitch, this is all foolishness--you're just scart; that
snake ain't pisen. He can't hurt you more than a chicken." So Mitch sat
right up and looked at his hand which wasn't swelled. And he says: "I am
pisened, I'm sick." "Oh, shucks," said Mr. Miller. "It's just
imagination. Come into the drug store and get a soda."

Mitch climbed out of the wagon, kind of pale yet, but more sheepish and
went in and drank his soda and began to laugh. And Mr. Miller said,
"Where was you?" And Mitch said, "Down by the mill." And Mr. Miller
said, "Now, listen; you've had a scare, but there is only two snakes
around here that is pisen. One is the copperhead. You can tell him by
his bright copper-colored head and his strawberry body; the other is the
rattlesnake. You can tell him by his rattle. But if you don't be carefu