"They'd stampede the cattle in seven counties. What would a drove of steers or a band of horses do if they saw one of them elephants coming at 'em, so's they couldn't tell which end was the tail? Or one of them long-necked giraffes? Why, those giraffes would starve out our way. There's no trees tall enough for 'em to eat their breakfast from."
They went into the reptile house, and the snakes fascinated Roy. He paused before a glass box of rattlers.
"There's something we've got out West," he said, "and we'd give a good deal not to have 'em. We lose lots of cattle from snake-bites—those ugly rattlers! I don't like to look at 'em! I nearly stepped on one once, and he stuck his fangs in my boot."
"What did you do?"
"Stepped on it and killed it. Come on; let's look at something more pleasant."
They spent the rest of the day in the Park, and returned to the hotel that evening.
For about a week nothing occurred. Mortimer De Royster took Roy for occasional pleasure trips, including one jaunt to Coney Island, where the boy from the ranch had his first glimpse of the ocean. The big waves, and the immense expanse of water, astonished him more than anything he had seen in New York.
"I never knew there was so much water in the world," he said. "This would be fine out our way in time of drouth, when all the pastures dry up."
"I'm afraid it would be worse than none at all," said Mr. De Royster. "It's salt, and it would kill the grass."
"That's so. I didn't think about that."