tted snake dangling from her hand.

"Sarah!" Doctor Hugh managed to halt the march of his determined
small sister. "Sarah, take that snake away at once. At once, do you
hear me? Aunt Trudy is afraid of snakes."

"Well, she wouldn't be, if she knew about 'em," insisted Sarah. "I
only want to show her."

"You can't show her--lots of people are frightened by the sight of
snakes," replied the doctor. "Take your snake out of the room this
minute."

Still Sarah lingered.

"It's dead," she offered humbly. "A dead snake won't hurt Aunt Trudy
will it?"

Doctor Hugh caught Rosemary's eye, and they went off into peals of
laughter while poor Aunt Trudy wept and Shirley implored Rosemary to
tell her what was "funny."

"Take your snake away and bury it, Sarah," said the doctor, when he
could speak.

"And don't try to educate your relatives and friends to recognize
the virtues of the reptile family; a person either likes snakes or
can't abide 'em, and you and Aunt Trudy will never agree on that
subject."

"I think you ought to forbid her to ever touch one, or carry one
around with her," said Aunt Trudy when Sarah had gone out of the
room sorrowfully to borrow a match box from Winnie to serve as a
snake-coffin. "The idea of having a snake in one's pocket!"

"You can't separate Sarah and animals," returned Sarah's brother
with conviction. "No use trying, Aunt Trudy. All this summer she was
crazy on the subject of rabbits and cats and now she seems to have
switched to snakes. About all we can do is to keep her within
reasonable bounds and trust to luck that before the winter is over
she will take up canary birds or something equally pleasing."

Aunt Trudy did not know Sarah's teacher, Miss Ames, but if she had
they would have found a common bond of sympathy and interest in
their horror of snakes and other unpleasant forms of animal life to
which Sarah was devoted. Eleanor Ames was a nervous young woman and
she found it distinctly trying to be obliged to divide the
interests of her class with a shoe-box of baby mice, or to soothe
the ruffled feelings of timid little girls who had seen the bright
eyes and wriggling slim body of a live snake peeping out of Sarah
Willis' coat in the cloak room. Punishment seemed to have no effect
on the culprit who stayed after school and cleaned blackboards with
disconcerting cheerfulness and Miss Ames was considering the
advisability of sending Sarah home with a note asking the
co-operatio