“Snakes! That’s all. A nest of black snakes. I’m trying to kill them.” Miss Joanna was, indeed, laying about her lustily with a heavy stick she had seized, and her delicate face was flushed with excitement.
“But they’ll bite you! My dear madam, do come away!” Poor Mrs. Beckwith herself was thrilled with fear, as her eyes fell upon the tangle of writhing, sinuous creatures to whom her neighbor was dealing destruction so vigorously.
“Oh, no, indeed! Not until I have made an end of them! Robby was terribly frightened, though he had no cause to be. I’ve finished two, I’ll have done presently. There! don’t let that one get away, please!”
The reptile was crawling sluggishly toward the spot where Mrs. Beckwith stood, and, with a scream that closely resembled her son’s, she leaped aside and retreated through the doorway.
Miss Joanna looked up in unfeigned surprise, and for a moment relaxed her murderous labor. “Why, are you afraid of these creatures?”
“Af-ra-id! Of course—I am!”
“They are harmless. You need not be.”
“Harmless! Why, then—”
“Do I destroy them? My statement must be qualified. They can hurt no person and they are timid; but they infest poultry-houses, steal eggs, make trouble in the dairy, and altogether accomplish so much more injury than benefit to a household that I think them best dead. My brother would not agree with me. He says they pay for their depredations by ridding us of meaner creatures. He would be quite distressed at my present action; only—” And the lady laughed lightly. “He has already as large a collection of reptiles as he should have. The sight of them terrifies nearly everybody, as these have you.”
The city woman could scarce believe her own ears; that anybody occupied as Miss Brook was at that moment could go on complacently giving a dissertation on the merits and demerits of so obnoxious an animal was amazing. Finally she found voice to inquire, “Are they plentiful hereabout?”