The Egg Eater

The girls were busy. One daughter, Erna was going to do the milking, and another daughter was going to feed the calves. So I thought I would gather the eggs today. I took the egg fillers and went along the nests and gathered the eggs.

When I was almost at the end of the nests, I saw something strange. What was that, a piece of wood? No, it is moving a little bit. I shivered and I felt angry and afraid. Oh, it is a snake!

It is getting dark. What should I do? I don't have a machete to kill it. And by the time I get my machete, the snake will have run away.

Oh, the worker is forking the grass for the calves. I will ask him to come and help me kill the snake. He is still right near the barn.

Oh, sure, he will come right away. is sharp enough to kill the snake.

He brought it out from the egg room.

And, sure enough, the knife

_ We were all curious to see how it looked, and whether it was poisonous, and how long it was. It is maybe 7 feet 6 inches long, brownish, with dark and light stripes on the back.

"Is it poisonous?

"No," said the worker. "That's a rat eater."

Really, we shouldn't kill that kind of snake, but I think maybe this is our egg eater, and then we must kill them. It looks like it eats eggs, and that's not a poisonous one.

The poisonous ones look very pretty, with colors of red, yellow and white, or yellow and white. The little ones which are poisonous are bright red, black and white, like the one we saw on the road as we went to the village one evening. The kind we killed are very poisonous, especially when they are rolled up. Then they are getting ready to strike and they are really dangerous.

Some people say that when we kill a snake, it doesn't die until after sunset

- Mary Reimer -