“Get out!” said Harry; “I don’t believe it was a snake at all. I wish the hole was big enough to get my hand in; I’d soon see what it was.”
“But if it was a snake, it would bite,” said Fred, “and poison you.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” said Harry; “it’s only adders that bite and poison; snakes are quite harmless; Papa says so, and he knows everything.”
“Does he?” said a voice behind the laurels, and Mr Inglis came up to them, smiling. “And so, Master Hal, you consider that Papa knows everything, do you? Ah, my boy, when you grow older, I trust that you will prove studious enough to find out how very ignorant your father is, and to look upon all he knows in the same way that he does himself, and that is, as a mere nothing in comparison with what there is to learn around us. But,” he continued, cheerfully, “what is it I am said to know so much about?”
“Why, about snakes, Papa. They won’t bite, will they?”
“Oh, yes,” said Mr Inglis, “and pretty sharply, too, after their fashion. I do not suppose that it would pierce your skin; but if you could occupy the position of poor froggy some day, when a snake has got hold of him by the hind legs, I think you would find that he could bite. But what made you talk about snakes?”
“Why, there’s one in this tree, Papa,” said Philip; “we put a stick into the hole, and it did hiss so. Now, you listen.”
Philip placed a piece of wood in the hole again, and in a moment there came forth the same sharp hiss, and directly Philip darted back in the same way as his brother had a short time before.
“There, did you hear that?” said the boys.
“Oh, yes; I heard the hiss, but it was not a snake; only the noise made by the female titmouse when sitting upon her nest. It is to scare intruders away, and you see how effectually it answers the purpose, for you boys were completely startled, and thought that it was a snake. And this is very often the case in nature, that helpless birds, animals, and insects are provided with means of offence or concealment, that in a great measure balance the helplessness of their nature. But I should like you lads to read these natural history facts for yourselves, and then search, during your walks and excursions, for the objects you have read of in your studies.”