They rode up and surveyed more closely the strange battle. The fawn, becoming more and more enraged, did not suspend hostilities at their approach. They paused involuntarily when, within a few feet of the object, which proved to be a tremendous rattlesnake, some five feet in length, and as thick as a man’s arm. It was nearly dead, its body, neck, and head, exhibited many bloody gashes cut by the sharp hoofs of the fawn. Every time the fawn sprang upon it, it endeavoured in vain to strike its fangs into its active foe, which sprang away in a twinkling, and before it could prepare to strike again, the fatal hoofs would inflict another wound on its devoted head. It grew weaker and weaker, and finally turned over on its back, when the infuriated deer, no longer compelled to observe cautionary measures, soon severed its head entirely from the body and stood over it in triumph. [Illustration: It grew weaker and weaker, and finally turned over on its back.] “Pete can do that if a deer can!” said Joe, somewhat emboldened at the death of so formidable a reptile, and beholding the fixed though composed gaze of the pony as he stood with his head turned sideways towards the weltering snake. “Sartinly he kin,” said Sneak, standing up in his stirrups, and stretching his long neck to its utmost tension to see if any snakes were in the open area before them. “Do you see any, Sneak?” asked Joe, now grasping his rod and anxious for the fray. “I see a few—about forty, I guess, lying in the sun at the edge of the water.” “Sneak, there’s too many of them,” said Joe. “Dod—you ain’t a going to back out now, I hope. Don’t you see your pony snuffing at ’em? He wants to dash right in among ’em.” “No he don’t,” said Joe—“he don’t like the smell, nor I either—faugh!” “Why, it smells like May-apples—I like it,” said Sneak; “but there ain’t more than one or two copper-heads there—they’re most all racers. Come on, Joe—we must gallop right through and mash their heads with our sticks as we pass. Then after a little while we must turn and dash back agin—that’s the way to fix ’em.” “You must go before,” said Joe.