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there would be no such thing as being genial with men—men would be afraid of me, and then I should be a very lonesome and miserable rattle-snake."
"True, men would be afraid of you. And why ? Because of your rattle, your hollow rattle—a sound, as I have been told, like the shaking together of small, dry skulls in a tune of the Waltz of Death. And here we have another beautiful truth. When any creature is by its make inimical to other creatures, nature in effect labels that creature, much as an apothecary does a poison. So that whoever is destroyed by a rattle-snake, or other harmful agent, it is his own fault. He should have respected the label. Hence that significant passage in Scripture, ' Who will pity the charmer that is bitten with a serpent?'"
"I would pity him," said the cosmopolitan, a little bluntly, perhaps.
"But don't you think," rejoined the other, still maintaining his passionless air, " don't you think, that for a man to pity where nature is pitiless, is a little presuming?"
"Let casuists decide the casuistry, but the compassion the heart decides for itself. But, sir," deepening in seriousness, " as I now for the first realize, you but a moment since introduced the word irresponsible in a way I am not used to. Now, sir, though, out of a tolerant spirit, as I hope, I try my best never to be frightened at any speculation, so long as it is pursued in honesty, yet, for once, I must acknowledge that you do really, in the point cited, cause me uneasiness ; because
