ery much mind anything. So, taking her son on her arm,
and hanging a little earthen pot for cooking round her neck, she left
her house with its great peacock fans and slaves and seats of ivory, and
plunged into the forest.

* * * * *

For a while she walked, not knowing whither she went, then by and bye
she grew tired, and sat under a tree to rest and to hush her baby to
sleep. Suddenly she raised her eyes, and saw a snake wriggling from
under the bushes towards her.

'I am a dead woman,' she said to herself, and stayed quite still, for
indeed she was too frightened to move. In another minute the snake had
reached her side, and to her surprise he spoke.

'Open your earthen pot, and let me go in. Save me from sun, and I will
save you from rain,' and she opened the pot, and when the snake had
slipped in, she put on the cover. Soon she beheld another snake coming
after the other one, and when it had reached her it stopped and said,
'Did you see a small grey snake pass this way just now?'

'Yes,' she answered, 'it was going very quickly.'

'Ah, I must hurry and catch it up,' replied the second snake, and it
hastened on.

When it was out of sight, a voice from the pot said:

'Uncover me,' and she lifted the lid, and the little grey snake slid
rapidly to the ground.

'I am safe now,' he said. 'But tell me, where are you going?'

'I cannot tell you, for I do not know,' she answered. 'I am just
wandering in the wood.'

'Follow me, and let us go home together,' said the snake, and the girl
followed him through the forest and along the green paths, till they
came to a great lake, where they stopped to rest.

[Illustration: "MY BABY, MY BABY!"]

'The sun is hot,' said the snake, 'and you have walked far. Take your
baby and bathe in that cool place where the boughs of the tree stretch
far over the water.'

'Yes, I will,' answered she, and they went in. The baby splashed and
crowed with delight, and then he gave a spring and fell right in, down,
down, down, and his mother could not find him, though she searched all
among the reeds.

Full of terror, she made her way back to the bank, and called to the
snake, 'My baby is gone!--he is drowned, and never shall I see him
again.'

'Go in once more,' said the snake, 'and feel everywhere, even among the
trees that have their roots in the water, lest perhaps he may be held
fast there.'

Swiftly she went back and felt everywhere with her w