ABSTRACT
Edward had no sooner related the adventure of the rattle-snake and the squirrel, than David went to search for that/ formidable reptile, whom he found basking among the underwood24 at the bottom of the great tree where he had devoured his prey. His voraciousness indeed proved his ruin; for, as but a few minutes had elapsed since he had swallowed the squirrel, it had not yet reached his stomach: so that the size of it in his gullet incommoded him, and prevented his being able to make his escape, and David cut his head o with one stroke of his sword. All danger from the poison of the animal (the most subtle perhaps with which any animal is endued) was by this means removed, and the poor squirrel became David’s prize; and at this time not a bad one; for a squirrel is just as good eating as a rabbit, and it was not a bit the worse for being swallowed by the snake, who might himself be eaten with all possible safety, the poison fangs being rst removed: but of this at the present time they made no advantage.
