rmed the game.
As it was, they went the whole length of the first heap without hearing
so much as a rustle. The second heap was nearly passed in the same way,
when Harry, who was first, stepped nimbly back and caught hold of the
handkerchief that held Dick, who, seeing that something exciting was
going on, immediately became rampant, but was soon guided to a spot
where a snake had nearly buried itself in the rotten straw, and lay with
about nine inches of its tail exposed, after the fashion of an ostrich,
which supposes that if its head is hidden it must be all right and safe.
But there was no safety for the poor snake, for Dick was down upon him
in a moment and hanging on to its tail, in spite of the struggles of the
poor thing to get away.
All Dick's efforts were directed towards dragging the snake out of its
hole, while the snake, by means of its scaly and plated body, offered a
most powerful resistance, and tried hard to creep farther in; and so
they went on for some time, the snake, however, gradually losing ground,
until the lads began to dig round it with their sticks, and loosen the
manure, when out it came all at once, writhing and twining, and trying
to fasten upon Dick's head; but the dog's shaggy, wiry hair protected
him, and shaking the unco' brute off for a moment, he got another gripe
at it close up to the head, and shook it, and worried it, until the poor
snake hardly moved, but gave in, conquered and dying.
The trophy was secured, and Dick's stumpy tail wag-waggled, as much as
to say, "Didn't I do that well?" and then he kept snapping and leaping
up at the handkerchief which held the snake, while his red tongue
quivered and stuck out between his sharp shiny teeth that were longing
to have another snap at something. The huntsmen then cautiously went
along the side of the two remaining heaps, but not another trace of a
snake could they find, so they went back the whole length of the four
heaps, but with no better success, till Dick, who was down at the bottom
of the bramble-covered ditch, suddenly set up a sharp, short bark, then
there was a rustle and skurry for a moment, and he rushed open-mouthed
up the bank head fust at the oak palings, and came against them with a
thud just after a snake's tail was seen to disappear through a hole at
the bottom, where a small piece had rotted away.
Dick whined and howled with rage at being thus stopped in his career,
and seizing a piece of the broken pale in h
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