thing on the ground, barking and growling fiercely at it. Minny stayed farther away, hissing at the creature, while her fur stood straight up on her back. “ Stop! stop!” yelled Uncle Bill, back of the children. “Don’t go any closer or you’ll get hurt! That’s a ra ttlesnake !” Sure enough, it was! About four feet long, it lay on the ground all coiled up in circles. At one end o f its slim body was its head, sticking up in the air and swing ing back and forth, while its forked tongue kept jumping in and out o f its mouth. At the oth er end was its tail, loaded with rattles shaking their warning to everyone. “ Bzzzzz!” went the rat tles as they seemed to say, “Don’t come any closer or you’ll be sorry.” Duffy and Darla stopped right in their tracks, while Uncle Bill picked up a long stick shaped like a “Y” at one end. He pinned the snake’s head to the ground by trapping its neck between the “Y ” end o f the stick. “Duffy,” he said, “ run, get me my ax real quick-like!” That Duffy did in a jiffy. Both he and Darla then watched Uncle Bill chop off the snake’s head. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Darla shivered. Then Uncle Bill did a surpris ing thing. He carefully picked up the snake’s head in one hand, and a little twig in the other. Then he said to Duffy and Darla, “ Come over here, so I can teach you something about rattlesnakes. See the two sharp fangs, or teeth, on this snake? Well, those are poisonous, and are very danger ous if the snake bites you. Now watch this!” He opened the snake’s mouth and stuck one end o f the twig into it. Guess what happened? The snake’s head bit right down on that twig, even though its body was gone! But that wasn’t all! Uncle Bill said to look at the rest of the snake on the ground. Do you know what that critter was doing? It was still wiggling around, even though it had no head!
JUNIOR K ING ’S BU S INESS
by Gary R. D uffy and D arla were waving goodbye to their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, who were driving down the dusty dirt road, away from Uncle Bill’s ranch. The whole family had come to vis it Uncle Bill, and before they left, Uncle Bill had talked Mr. and Mrs. Johnson into letting Duffy and Darla stay at the ranch for a whole week. “Boy!” said Darla, “ I’ll sure miss Mom and Dad this week.” “Me too,” answered Duffy, “ but just think o f all the things there are to do on Uncle Bill’s ranch!” Duffy knew they would have fun this week, but he didn’t know how much fun they would really have, and how much he and Darla would learn before the week was over. He didn’t know yet about the wild animals they would meet, the wonderful plants they would see, and the stories Uncle Bill would tell about King’s Cave.
Williams
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were al most out of sight when Uncle Bill exclaimed, “ Come on, you two! Let’s go see what Smokey and Minny are up to; I can hear Smokey barking down by the creek.” Smokey was Duffy’s fa vorite dog. He was the prettiest gray German Shepherd around. Uncle Bill had taught it to be a useful dog. It had been trained to corral the cattle, and to protect people from dangerous wild ani mals. Minny, on the other hand, was Darla’s favorite pet. Minny was just a thin little kitten, so thin in fact that Uncle Bill called her “ Skinny Minny!” “Hurry, Darla!” shouted Duffy, “ it sounds as if Smokey has found something!” Both of them ran as fast as they could to the creek, leaping over rocks, shrubs and tiny cactuses. As they came clos er, they could see Smokey run ning around and around some
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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