"Hyar come anudder," she cried, as a stone went flying through the air. "Take dat. Hit yuh, didn't it? Skeer Miss Dimple outen her senses, will yuh? Yuh gre't, ugly black crittur!" and rock after rock came with such force and precision that the unfortunate snake, in a few minutes, was "daid as a do' nail," as Bubbles expressed it.
Dimple clung to her mother, trembling with fright, even after the snake was killed.
"Is it dead, really dead? Oh, Bubbles!" she quavered. "What would I have done if you hadn't been so brave?"
Bubbles laughed. "Dat wan't no snake to pison yuh," she said. "It couldn't hurt yuh. All it could do was to race yuh."
"Don't talk about it," said Dimple, shuddering. "Do let us leave it, and go back."
But Bubbles was too proud of her performance to allow it to be set aside; so she picked up the snake, and started to carry it back on a forked stick.
On the way, however, she too fell into a fright at sight of an innocent little land terrapin traveling along with his house on his back. "Don't tech it, don't, Miss Dimple," she cried in terror. "Dey has de evilest eyes. I wouldn't tech one fer nothin'."
"But you aren't afraid of snakes," replied Dimple, "and these little terrapins are much more harmless." Nevertheless Bubbles had in some way acquired a superstition about "Bre'r Tarrapin," from Sylvy, who, like most colored people, stood in terror of the innocent creatures.
But when the boats returned, the big snake, hanging over the limb of a tree, was triumphantly displayed and attested to Bubbles' courage; so that she was made very proud by the praise she received for having killed it, Dimple generously refraining from saying anything about the terrapin.
Although Rock did not catch the first fish, he caught the biggest one, and was quite proud of it.