“No, the hosses knows what a snake is as well as a man, and they’ll keep a bright eye for ’emselves, while we stave out their brains with our poles,” said Sneak.
In a few minutes the companions were mounted, and with the fawn skipping in advance, and the hounds in the rear, they proceeded gayly out toward the prairie on a snaking expedition.
The sunlight was now intensely brilliant, and the atmosphere, though laden with the sweet perfume of the countless millions of wild flowers, began to assume a sultriness that soon caused the horses and hounds to loll out their tongues and pant as they bounded through the rank grass. Ere long the riders drew near a partially barren spot in the prairie, where from some singular cause the grass was not more than three inches high. This spot was circular, about fifty paces in diameter, and in the centre was a pool of bright water, some fifty feet in circumference. The grass growing round this spot was tall and luxuriant, and terminated as abruptly at the edge of the circle as if a mower had passed along with his sharp scythe.
“Sneak, I never saw that before,” said Joe, as they approached, while yet some forty paces distant. “What does it mean?”
“You’ll see presently,” said his companion, grasping more firmly the thick end of his rod, as if preparing to deal a blow. “When I was out here this morning,” he continued, “they were too thick for me, and I had to make tracks.”
“What were too thick for you?” asked Joe, with a singular anxiety, and at the same time reining in his pony.
“Why, the snakes,” said Sneak with much deliberation. “I was a-foot then, and from the style in which they whizzed through the grass, I was afraid too many might git on me at a time and choke me to death. But now I’m ready for ’em; they can’t git us if we manage korect.”
“I won’t go!” said Joe.
“Dod, they ain’t pisen!” said Sneak; “they’re nearly all black racers, and they don’t bite. Come on, don’t be such a tarnation coward; the rattlesnakes, and copper-heads, and wipers, won’t run after us; and if they was to, they couldn’t reach up to our legs. This is a glorious day for snaking—come on, Joe!”
Joe followed at a very slow and cautious pace a few steps farther, and then halted again.