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TUE RATTLESNAKE. * 61
earth. A low rattle checked her first, and then she saw the shim-
mer of a serpent, coiled upon the very rock where her boy was lying.
-Her approach had aroused the reptile, and she could see him pre-
paring to lance out. His first fling would be at the sleeping boy.
The mother was frozen into marble; she. dared not move — she could
only stare at the snake with a wild glitter of the eye.
‘The stillness seemed to appease the creature. The noise of. his
rattle grew fainter, and his eyes sank like waning fire-sparks into the
writhing folds that settled on the moss. But the child was disturbed
by a sunbeam that slanted through the leaves overhead, and turned
upon the tiger-skin. Instantly the rattle sounded sharp and clear,
and out from the writhing folds shot the venomous head with its
vicious eyes fixed.on the boy. Malaeska had, even in her frozen
state, some thought of saving her boy. With her cold hands she
had fittel the arrow and lifted the bow, but as the serpent grew
passive, the weapon dropped again; for he lay on the other side of
the child, and to kill him she was obliged to shoot over that sleeping
form. But the reptile crested himself again, and now with a quiver
of horrible dread at her heart, but nerves strained. like steel, she
drew the bowstring, and, aiming at the head which glittered like a
jewel, just beyond her child, let the arrow fly. ~She went blind on
‘the instant — the darkness of death fell upon her brain; the coldness
of death lay upon her heart; she listened for some cry — nothing
‘but a sharp rustling of leaves and then profound stillness met her
strained senses.
The time in which Malaeska was struck with darkness seemed an
eternity to her, but it lasted only an instant, in fact; then her eyes
opened wide in the agonized search, and terrible thrills shot through
her- frame. A laugh rang up through the trees, and then she saw
her boy sitting up on the tiger-skin, his cheeks all rosy with sleep
and dimpled with surprise, gazing down upon the headless rattlesnake ,
that had uncoiled conyulsively in its death-spasms, and lay quivering
across his feet. :
“*Wa!ha!?? he shouted, clapping his hands, ‘ this is a famous
_ fellow — prettier than the birds, prettier than the squirrels. Mala-
eska ! Malaeska ! sce what this checkered thing is with no head, and
rings on its tail.’?
-Malaeska was so weak she could hardly stand, but, trembling in
every limb, she staggered toward the rock, and scizing upon the still
quivering snake, hurled it with a shuddering cry into the under-
growth.
Then she fell upon her knees, and clasped the boy close, close to
her bosom till he struggled and cried out that she wag hurting him.
But she could not Iet him go3 it seemed as if the serpent would coil
around. him the moment her arms were loosened; she clung to his
_ garments —she kissed his hands, his hair, and his flushed forehead
with passionate energy. .
He could not understand all this. Why did Malacska breathe so