Snakes ware frequent visitor in the cabins of the "quarters". One morning while Betty, a cook, was confined to bed, she sent for Mrs. Towns to tell her that a snake had lain across her chest during the previous night and had tried to get under the cover where her young baby lay asleep. Mrs. Towns was skeptical about the size and activities of the reptile but sent for several men to search the house. They had given up the search when one chanced to glance above the sick woman's bed and there lay the reptile on a shelf. The bed was roped and moved to another part of the room and preparations made to shoot him. Quilts were piled high on the bed so that the noise of the gun would not frighten the baby. When all was ready Mrs. Towns asked the old man with the gun—
"Daddy Luke, can you kill the snake?"
"Yessum, mistress," he replied.
"Daddy Luke, can you kill the snake?"
"Yessum, mistress."
"Daddy Luke, can you kill the snake?"
"Yessum, mistress."
"Shoot!!"
He took careful aim and fired. The huge reptile rolled to the floor.
When the men returned to the yard to work near the woodpile, the mate was discovered by one of the dogs that barked until a log was moved and the second snake killed.