“Ah! Crackers—that’s it. Do you think there’ll be any snakes there?”
“Not sea-serpents, Tom,” I said laughing; “but up the country where we are going there are sure to be plenty of land-serpents.”
“Not big ones, though, Mas’r Harry?”
“I should say there will be some very big ones in the swamps by the great rivers.”
“Think o’ that now!” said Tom. “Big serpents! ugh! I can’t abide eels even. I don’t know how I should get on with serpents. But I say, Mas’r Harry, it’s all nonsense about sea-serpents, ar’n’t it?”
“I don’t know, Tom,” I replied. “Perhaps they never grow to a very large size; but there are thousands of small ones.”
“What! sea-serpents, Mas’r Harry?”
“To be sure there are.”
“But not in the sea—snakes couldn’t swim?”
“Indeed but they can, Tom. Why, I’ve seen our common English snake go into a stream and swim beautifully with its head reared above the water, and after swimming about for some time, come out.”