"I felt quite frightened, when I heard the story, and all the rest of the day, I couldn't help thinking uneasily of that gigantic woman snake. I was more frightened than ever, when the time came for me to go to bed at night. I slept then in the attic and used to go to bed without a light, for I had never been afraid of the dark. I went pretty slowly, I tell you, till I got to the attic door, and there I stopped awhile, afraid to open it for fear of seeing something horrid. But my father called to me to go to bed instantly. I opened the door, and there I saw the woman snake, part reaching into the dark above. I saw her as plainly, as I see you now, and was terrified almost out of my senses. "But my father called to me again, and I shut my eyes and rushed up stairs. Of course I didn't hit any thing for there was no such creature there. It was my fright at hearing the story, that made me see what didn't exist. "Now, Charley, do you think you had better read books, that can have such an effect as that?" [Illustration] CURIOUS BIRDS Uncle Brown had in his Museum, a great many Birds, as well as shells. I don't mean living birds, but stuffed birds. In the old countries there is a class of men, who, having been taught how to do it well, make it their regular trade to procure birds, and after having taken off their skins, with all the feathers on, to stuff them with some soft substance. They are exactly as if alive, and of the same size. There are some of these Taxidermists (as they are called) in this country, though not, I believe, very many. Uncle Brown got most of his birds from Europe, by means of uncle sea-captain, when he came home from his voyages. Uncle Brown going out one day, to Charley's father's, carried several of these birds with him, which were so pretty, that Charley was greatly delighted. [Illustration: EMERALD BIRD OF PARADISE.] The first he showed him was called "the Emerald Bird of Paradise," and was about as large as a jay. Its home is New Guinea and some other parts of the hot regions of Asia. Its body, breast, and lower parts are of a deep, rich brown; the front is covered thickly with black feathers, mixed with green; the throat is of a splendid golden-green; the head is yellow; and the tail is made up of long, downy plumes of a soft yellow, together with a pair filaments almost two feet long. "The bird is so vain of its beautiful plumage, that it will not let a speck of dirt stay on it; but is continually examining its feathers to see that they are perfectly clean. When wild, it always flies and sits facing the wind, lest its elegant plumes should get ruffled. "It lives partly on insects, such as grasshoppers, which it will not touch, unless it has killed them itself, but chiefly on the seeds of the teak tree and a kind of fig.