rd. I looked around in despair, but when things are the very
worst, there is almost always some way out.

On the dry straw worked between and pushing against the panels of the
floodgate, not far from me, I saw a big black water snake. I took one
good look at it: no coppery head, no geometry patterns, no rattlebox,
so I knew it wasn't poisonous and wouldn't bite until it was hurt, and
if it did, all you had to do was to suck the place, and it wouldn't
amount to more than two little pricks as if pins had stuck you; but a
big snake was a good excuse. I rolled from the floodgate among the
ducks, and cried, "Snake!" They scattered everywhere. The snake lazily
uncoiled and slid across the straw so slowly that--thank goodness!
Amanda Deam got a fair look at it. She immediately began to jump up
and down and scream. Leon grabbed a stick and came running to the
water. I cried so he had to help me out first.

"Don't let her count them!" I whispered.

Leon gave me one swift look and all the mischief in his blue eyes
peeped out. He was the funniest boy you ever knew, anyway. Mostly he
looked scowly and abused. He had a grievance against everybody and
everything. He said none of us liked him, and we imposed on him.
Father said that if he tanned Leon's jacket for anything, and set him
down to think it over, he would pout a while, then he would look
thoughtful, suddenly his face would light up and he would go away
sparkling; and you could depend upon it he would do the same thing
over, or something worse, inside an hour. When he wanted to, he could
smile the most winning smile, and he could coax you into anything.
Mother said she dreaded to have to borrow a dime from him, if a peddler
caught her without change, because she knew she'd be kept paying it
back for the next six months. Right now he was the busiest kind of a
boy.

"Where is it? Let me get a good lick at it! Don't scare the ducks!"
he would cry, and chase them from one bank to the other, while Amanda
danced and fought imaginary snakes. For a woman who had seen as many
as she must have in her life, it was too funny. I don't think I could
laugh harder, or Leon and Sammy. We enjoyed ourselves so much that at
last she began to be angry. She quit dancing, and commenced hunting
ducks, for sure. She held her skirts high, poked along the banks,
jumped the creek and didn't always get clear across. Her hair shook
down, she lost a sidecomb, and she couldn't find