"Well, dear, we got a viper and we killed it. Then we wanted the skeleton to keep and we didn't know how to get it. At first we thought we would bury it, but that seemed too slow. Then I had the idea to boil all the viper's flesh off its bones, and I got an old meat-tin and we put the viper and some water into it and put it above the fire." "You hung it on a hook, Daddy." "Yes, we hung it on the hook that they put the porridge pot on in Scotland. Then just as it was turning brown in came the farmer's wife, and ran up to see what we were cooking. When she saw the viper she thought we were going to eat it. 'Oh, you dirty divils!' she cried, and caught up the tin in her apron and threw it out of the window." Fresh shrieks of laughter from the children, and Dimples repeated "You dirty divil!" until Daddy had to clump him playfully on the head. "Tell us some more about snakes," cried Laddie. "Did you ever see a really dreadful snake?" "One that would turn you black and dead you in five minutes?" said Dimples. It was always the most awful thing that appealed to Dimples. "Yes, I have seen some beastly creatures. Once in the Sudan I was dozing on the sand when I opened my eyes and there was a horrid creature like a big slug with horns, short and thick, about a foot long, moving away in front of me." "What was it, Daddy?" Six eager eyes were turned up to him. "It was a death-adder. I expect that would dead you in five minutes, Dimples, if it got a bite at you." "Did you kill it?" "No; it was gone before I could get to it." "Which is the horridest, Daddy--a snake or a shark?" "I'm not very fond of either!" "Did you ever see a man eaten by sharks?" "No, dear, but I was not so far off being eaten myself." "Oo!" from all three of them. "I did a silly thing, for I swam round the ship in water where there are many sharks. As I was drying myself on the deck I saw the high fin of a shark above the water a little way off. It had heard the splashing and come up to look for me." "Weren't you frightened, Daddy?" "Yes. It made me feel rather cold." There was silence while Daddy saw once more the golden sand of the African beach and the snow-white roaring surf, with the long, smooth swell of the bar. Children don't like silences. "Daddy," said Laddie. "Do zebus bite?" "Zebus! Why, they are cows. No, of course not." "But a zebu could butt with its horns." "Oh, yes, it could butt." "Do you think a zebu could fight a crocodile?" "Well, I should back the crocodile." "Why?" "Well, dear, the crocodile has great teeth and would eat the zebu." "But suppose the zebu came up when the crocodile was not looking and butted it." "Well, that would be one up for the zebu. But one butt wouldn't hurt a crocodile."