re.

"Tabitha Catt!" she managed to articulate, "of all outrageous things I
ever heard tell of in my life! What do you think you are doing? Trying
to murder me? Haven't I had enough scares this morning without your
burning the skin all off my mouth and throat and choking me half to
death and then trying to drown me? What do you mean by it, I say?"

"Oh, Aunt Maria, are you bit?"

"Bit, bit, bit, did you say? Yes, bit by that fire you poured into me.
What did you think bit me?" She had forgotten all about the snake! And
Tabitha had difficulty in explaining the situation to her.

But that decided matters for Aunt Maria. She had hated the desert ever
since she had come there nearly four years ago, and this was the last
straw. What did she care if the snake did prove to be a harmless thing?
If she couldn't live in a house without being in danger of a snake
invasion at any time, she simply would not live there at all. Her temper
was thoroughly aroused, and when Mr. Catt arrived home that night she
made known her decision in no gentle terms to him.

"I have lived in this forsaken hole just as long as I am going to, Max
Catt! I've routed out centipedes and scorpions and poison bugs of all
kinds until I am tired of it. Tabitha caught a baby tarantula under her
bed the other morning, and we found something in the wood-pile last week
that the folks at the hotel called a Gila monster. Why, one can't stir
around here in the spring and summer without running the risk of getting
killed by some of your varmints, and I've had enough of it. I am going
back to civilization."

"Now, Maria, be sensible. That snake couldn't have got into the house if
the screen had been shut the way it should have been."

"I suppose the spiders and centipedes come in through the open screen,
too, don't they, and roost in the dishpan hanging on the wall! That is
where I found one not long ago, and I caught another stowed away in my
clothes when I went to dress yesterday. I don't dare go to sleep nights
any more for fear they will bite me. Life is a perfect nightmare. It is
bad enough to have to stay here nine-tenths of the time with nobody in
the house but Tabitha, without being in constant fear of one's life all
the time."

"How many people do you ever hear of being killed here on the desert by
centipedes or scorpions or tarantulas, or even snakes? I tell you they
aren't half as bad as they are made out to be."

"Well, I ain't going to risk my lif