rie @wO SEEKERS 45

favourite hdunts were ‘slimy swamps and
dingy thickets.

«One day the two boys returned from
their rambles ; Horace bringing a beautiful -
and fragrant blossom in his hand, and
Clarence bringing a serpent. They rushed
up to their mother, each anxious to show the
prize he had won. Clarence was:so forward,
that he placed*the serpent near his mother’s
- hand: on which the reptile put forth his
forked tongue, and then fixed his fangs in
her flesh. :

“In a moment a painsdarted through the
mother’s frame, and her arm began to*swell
up: she was in great distress, and sent for
the physician. When he came, he mani-
fested great alarm, for he said the serpent
was an adder, and its bite was fatal, unless
he could find a rare flower, for this alone
could heal the wound. While he said this,
he noticed the blossom which Horace held
‘i his hand. He seized upon it with joy,
saying—‘ This, this is the very plant I de-
sired? He applied it to the wound, and it
was healed in an instant.”

But this was not the whole of the story