rattler's strike is deadly swift, despite his languid locomotion.

At last Anna, settling herself firmly on the limb, raised her club
with both hands and delivered a slashing blow on the neck of her
foe, breaking, as they afterward found, his vertebral column.

The darting head hung limp; a progressive loosening ran through the
mottled coils; there was a slight rasping sound, a thud, and then a
whitish heap on the ground, which Anna cleared when, swinging down
by her hands to a safe distance, she leaped lightly to the ground.

Willie followed, dazed and fearful. He helped round up the cows,
casting furtive glances ahead and on each side at every footstep.
Before entering the house, he slunk, although still agonized with
fear, through the golden twilight to the abhorred bathing-pool and
the languidly fluttering cross-bars of the repudiated gingham
shirt.

But Anna, too ill for supper, crept into her father's arms, where
he sat on the vine-darkened veranda, and fell asleep on his
shoulder.

"Ach, mine Anna," the captain said, tenderly, "it iss sometimes
goodt for little girls to make themselves to be sailors!"



THE BUTTERFLY'S CHILDREN

By Mrs. Alfred Gatty