"You must kill it, Dab!" I said. "If you do not it may bite you some day when you go to pick tomatoes. If you see it there is no danger; you can chop its head off with that hoe."
With much urging Dab lifted the hoe and struck once, twice, thrice and then called out, "I got'm; 'e daid!"
"Bring it out! Don't leave it in the weeds!" I said.
Dab lifted his hoe tremulously, and there was a small ribbon snake, a foot long and one inch round!
I could not help a burst of merriment over it—and that restored our nerves. Dab continued to declare that the snake had sung, and since, I have felt I was very stupid not to know that the little snake's cry, if snakes ever do cry, was one of terror, and that it was due to the big snake being near, and that if I had only known it was not the monster Dab saw, and if I had not let him waste time on the little snake we might have caught up with the big fellow, who will now remain a permanent terror.
I am going to turn the horses in that field and the cows, and it will be a miracle if none of them meets him, and then my beautiful red setter will always be in danger. However, there was nothing to be done and I went on through the grass to the hay-field, walking very warily ahead with the hoe lifted, while Dab followed in my wake.
We picked nearly a barrelful of cockspur roots from the field. I have had an empty barrel put there to receive them. The peas are bearing well and the grass is very high, and it will make splendid hay, but I will not mow it until I feel sure there is not a single cockspur left.
They are fatal to horses. So strong are their little barbed points that if swallowed they pierce the intestines and kill the animal. There is only one way in which they can be got rid of, and that is by my all-day presence in the field, so for a week I expect to give myself up to it entirely—huge straw hat, blue denim apron, and buckskin gauntlets.
September 21.
This morning I went early to Cherokee and drove through the "street" to get some hands to break in two acres of corn which, being very near the road and convenient to passersby, had better be in the barn. At the well I found a picturesque group of gossiping matrons. After the usual civilities, I told my errand. "Becka, I want you," I said to one, a splendid figure, who stood balancing on her head a large tub of water. She answered: "Miss, I berry sorry; I kyant possible cum, I got de feber right now," and she walked off at a swinging gait. I turned to an equally fine specimen of health and strength and said, "Agnes, you will come?" "Miss, I too sorry, but mi baby got de feber;" the said baby looked as bright and hearty as the mother. All through the street it was the same thing. One elderly woman, quite as a favor, went home and locked her door and came. I had brought my house servants to help and found one or two hands in the barn-yard; but it took much longer than it should have done.