d Jack stoically.

"Don't be afraid, my boy; be a man. Now where was it?"

"I won't be afraid," replied Jack. "I won't mind the knife, father."

"Quick! Show me. Where was the wound?" exclaimed Mr Rogers.

"I don't know. It bit at me twice," replied Jack; "somewhere below the
knee."

"These creatures' teeth are like needles," said Mr Rogers. "Look,
Dick; can you see? two tiny punctures together?"

"Would it bleed, father?" said Dick.

"Most likely not."

"I don't see the wound, father."

"Nor I, my boy; but my head swims, and I feel giddy. It is as if there
was a mist before my eyes. Oh, my boy! my boy!"

"Snake never bite um at all," cried Chicory sturdily. "All swellum and
look blue by dis time. Only bite leggum trousers."

Jack burst into a roar of laughter, and a strange reaction took place,
for Chicory was undoubtedly right: the loose trouser-leg had caught the
virulent little reptile's fangs, and averted the danger.

For there was no gainsaying the matter. Jack felt nothing the matter
with him, when, if he had been injured, he would have been under the
influence of the terribly rapid poison by then, whereas he was ready to
jump up and laugh at the mistake.

He did not laugh much, however, for his father's serious looks checked
him. And soon after, when they were alone, Mr Rogers said something to
his son about thankfulness for his escape which brought the tears into
the boy's eyes. The next minute, though, father and son joined hands,
and no more was said.

It was another warning to be careful, and of the many dangers by which
they were surrounded, and the boys promised to temper their daring with
more discretion for the future.

They afterwards called that the reptile day, for the number of scaly
creatures they saw was prodigious.

"But I want to see one of those tremendously great boa-constrictors,"
said Dick, "one of the monsters you read of in books."

"As big round as the mast of a man-of-war, and as long, eh?" said his
father.

"Yes," said Dick.

"Then I'm afraid, my boy, that you will be disappointed, for from my own
experience I think those creatures exist only in the imaginations of
writers. I dare say they may grow to thirty feet long, but you may take
a boa of eighteen or twenty feet as a monster, and as big as you are
likely to see. That was a very large serpent you shot in the valley
there."

"Oh," said Dick; "I don't call that a long one."

"This is just the