rp blow of the
axe, and then threw the reptile to the ground. Lew was on it like a flash
with his feet, tramping it to death. In the snake's mouth was a small
squirrel still kicking and making muffled noises.

Charley slid to the ground, drew his knife and slit the snake's head,
releasing the young squirrel. It was hurt and terribly frightened, but was
apparently not really injured. Charley kept it in his hand, feeling for
broken bones.

"I don't believe this squirrel is really harmed a bit," he said finally,
"but it was a pretty close call. I'm going to put it back in the nest
again."

He put the little creature in his pocket, then again shinned up the tree,
and placed the squirrel in its nest. Meantime, the old squirrels in the
tree top chattered incessantly.

"Nobody's going to hurt you," said Charley, looking upward through the
branches. "We're only trying to help you."

When he came to earth once more he examined the snake. "He's a big
fellow," he said, stretching the reptile out straight. "He's a good deal
more than six feet long. I guess we'll take his skin and make a belt of
it."

As he drew out his knife again and proceeded to skin the snake, he
continued, "I don't believe in killing snakes as a general rule, but
blacksnakes do more harm than good, I believe. It's true they kill rats
and mice, but they also eat birds' eggs and young birds and squirrels, and
no end of other useful creatures. And they are so active that one snake
will kill a great number in the course of a year."

"I don't understand how they can eat anything so big as that young
squirrel," said Lew, "but I know they do."

"Really they don't," laughed Charley. "They drag themselves outside of
their prey. You know their jaws are loose so they can spread them, and
their teeth point backward. What they do is to work the upper jaw and then
the lower, hooking their teeth into their food, pulling back with each
half of the jaw in turn. You see they literally pull themselves over their
prey. Well, I'm glad we got that fellow. I suppose it's my business to
kill all the blacksnakes I can. Whatever harms the squirrels, hurts the
forest."

"What do you mean?" asked Lew.

"Why, you know that squirrels help to plant the nut trees in a forest.
Some tree seeds, like pine and maple seeds, are so small or light that
they are carried easily by birds and winds, and so scattered about. But
acorns and nuts are so heavy that they fall straight down to the