of rocks. The first article in every California mountain child's
education is to destroy every rattlesnake that comes in sight. Anna
dodged the first strike of the snake, and before he could get
nearer she began a fusillade of such efficiency that the reptile
enemy sought retreat.

Then Anna was privileged to witness a strange thing--a very strange
thing; so unusual, in fact, that when reported to the head of the
zoological department of the State university that conservative
gentleman would have given the story little credence had it not
been for the unimpeachable authority of a celebrated naturalist,
who had reported it as occasionally occurring among the large,
much-to-be-dreaded species of the Eastern States--the _Crotalus
horrible_, or banded rattler.

To Anna's unutterable surprise, the snake turned for refuge to a
near-by oak-tree. Perhaps he came against it unintentionally, as
the rattlesnake sees badly by daylight. At any rate, he reared his
head against it much as he would have done in ascending the side of
a sunny boulder in the early days of his chilled awakening from his
winter sleep.

He writhed spirally but slowly up its rough trunk, which seemed
from eighteen to twenty inches in circumference. When the rocks
ceased flying he would halt, evidently not half-liking his task, to
wave his bluntly triangular head in the direction where the moving
shadow indicated to his blurred vision the position of his enemy.
But on the resumption of active hostilities, he would begin again
his painful ascent.