The Dukite Snake.

Well, mate, you’ve asked me about a fellow

You met to-day in a black and yellow

Chain-gang suit, with a peddler’s pack,

Or with some such burden strapped to his back.

Did you meet him square? No, passed you by?[1210]

Well, if you had, and had looked in his eye,

You’d have felt for your irons then and there;

For the light of his eye is a madman’s glare.

Some eight years back, in the spring of the year,