library Burroughs's account of a like scene and rescue. "I will just give
you some glimpses of the picture," he said, reading the following
sentences: "'Three or four yards from me was the nest, beneath which, in
long festoons, rested a huge black-snake. I can conceive of nothing more
overpoweringly terrible to an unsuspecting family of birds than the sudden
appearance above their domicile of the head and neck of this arch enemy.
One thinks of the great myth of the tempter and the cause of all our woe,
and wonders if the Arch-One is not playing off some of his pranks before
him. Whether we call it snake or devil matters little. I could but admire
his terrible beauty, however; his black, shining folds; his easy, gliding
movement--head erect, eyes glistening, tongue playing like subtile flame,
and the invisible means of his almost winged locomotion. Presently, as he
came gliding down the slender body of a leaning alder, his attention was
attracted by a slight movement of my arm; eying me an instant with that
crouching, utter, motionless gaze which I believe only snakes and devils
can assume, he turned quickly,'" etc.

Amy shuddered, and Mrs. Clifford looked a little troubled that the scene in
Eden should be spoken of as merely a "myth." When she was a child "Paradise
Lost" had been her story-book, and the stories had become real to her.
Burt, however, not to be outdone, recalled his classics.

"By the way," he said, "I can almost parallel your description from the
'Iliad' of Homer. I won't pretend that I can give you the Greek, and no
doubt it would be Greek to you. I'll get even with you, Webb, however, and
read an extract from Pope's translation," and he also made an excursion to
the library. Returning, he said, "Don't ask me for the connection," and
read:

"'Straight to the tree his sanguine spires he rolled,