“Well, look you, I never did see such a boy as you are, Master George. Do you know what sort of a snake it is?”
“How should I? You wouldn’t tell me.”
“Well, you talk as if it was a little adder, foot and half long, or a snake at home that you might pick up in your hand. Why, it’s a real rattlesnake.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, excitedly.
“Over six foot long, and as thick as my wrist.”
“Pooh!” I said, with my imagination full of boa-constrictors big enough to entwine and crush us up. “That’s nothing!”
“Nothing! Do you know one bite from a fellow like this will kill a man? And you talk about fighting fair. Nice lot of fairness in the way they fight. You come along, and promise to be very careful, or I shan’t go.”
“Oh, I’ll be careful,” I said.
“But if you feel afraid, say so, and I’ll go alone.”
“I don’t feel afraid,” I replied; “and if I did,” I added with a laugh, “I wouldn’t say I was.”