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Show p Rippling' I Rhymes j Uy W ALT MASON 111 1 it vn i.i i s i 1 We were camped beside a lake, by a eucalyptus tree, someone hollered, 'There's .1 BUake! ft's a rattler! Huii chee!" Thin we dropped our diver chores in tho twinkling of an ear; sane ihd useful tasks are boles when a rattlesnake rat-tlesnake Is near. And we formed a ring around, round the human race's foe, and our fingers clawed the ground for some boulders we might throw Vnd we threw, with bated breath at five feet of writhing ain" battle, murd- r, sudden death, dune up in a mottled skin' Rocks were flying, thick and fast some thrown crooked, others straight, and the serpent to the last, dared us with a deathless hate. He is lshmael. u,js -Mike, with his rattles "ii behtml. Which when playing tunes, Can wake terrors In the bravest mind Harried t(J the barren la mis. driven from the fO-ld and farm, even snakes of other brands view the rattler with alarm. He has not a friend at court, where snake advocates appear, but he is a dead game .-qort, and a stranger to all fear. And I feltra sense of shami when w.-d killed thai mottled thing. ue had played a tinhorn game throwing throw-ing bulders o a ring. And ti.e recollection recollec-tion makes luke-warm pains niide dotyi m heck, even wJep wejre killing kill-ing Kiia,e- sportsmanship would be on deck? |