Katy and Gertie both screamed and jumped back. Jane opened her eyes quickly to see the snake uncoil and start to glide away. She saw something else, too. She saw that her stone had wounded it just behind the head. Her courage flowed back in a trice. She raised the other stone and moved forward. The snake was slipping over the ground at a swift pace. She had to run, catching up with it as it came to its hole, a few feet distant. She smashed down the second rock almost in the same place she had hit before. The reptile moved feebly about six inches farther till its ugly head was hidden inside the hole, then thrashed its heavy body through another undulation, and lay still. Chicken Little stood looking at it in dazed surprise for several seconds. She was white and trembling with excitement. Seeing that it did not move, Katy and Gertie crept a little closer. No one said a word for a full minute, then Chicken Little came to life, her face convulsed with loathing. "Ugh, the nasty thing--I hate them. I don't see what God wanted to make such horrid, wicked things for!" "Well, the Bible says they weren't wicked till Eve ate the apple," Katy replied, staring curiously down at the snake. She had never seen such a big one outside of a circus. "But I think they must have always looked wicked, anyhow. How did you ever dare, Chicken Little, to tackle it? I was expecting it to wind right round you like that picture of Laocoon in our mythology." "I shouldn't have dared if I hadn't seen so many of them before. I guess being brave is mostly being used to things. But I hate snakes worse than anything in the world--I don't feel a bit sorry about killing them!" "Oh, dear," said Gertie, shuddering, "I s'pose we have got to find the rest of the pigs." Katy and Chicken Little each echoed the sigh. They all started ahead resolutely. But they kept closer together for a time. They went some little distance without finding any further signs of the lost animals. "You don't suppose we could have passed them, do you?" Katy inquired anxiously. "We couldn't, if they are on this side of the slough." A few rods farther on something moved in the swamp grass. All three jumped and screamed: their nerve had been sadly weakened by the bull snake. A squeal and chorus of grunts reassured them. "Here they are--a lot of them. Oh, dear, I wish we'd brought the coop along so we wouldn't have to go back." Jane parted the tall grass and discovered five of the fugitives huddled together. They were much livelier than the first ones and showed symptoms of bolting if the girls approached nearer. "I'll go back for it," said Katy. "I'll go through the short grass and I won't be afraid." Chicken Little and Gertie watched and waited. "Isn't that little white one with the pink ears and curly tail cunning? I didn't suppose pigs could be so pretty." "They are only pretty when they are weenties. As soon as they grow old enough to root in the mud, they are horrid."