The Water Snake

We didn’t live in the grainery at the farm very long, just long enough for dad to find and buy us a new home in town. It was almost a new house with a beautiful orchard of trees, fruit trees, corrals, stock yard, pond for water, etc. After father bought the home in town, we would travel back and forth to the farm with team and wagon.

At this time, I was in the third grade and Mrs. Charlotte Liddell was my teacher, The third and fourth grades were in the same classroom. At the back and in the right hand corner of the room was a table, and on top of this table, was a screened pen and in this pen, our teacher kept several snakes. A couple blow snakes, the rest water snakes. Mrs. Liddell would lecture to us kids about snakes, that they were harmless and that they did a lot of good catching and eating mice, rats, bugs, insects, etc.

Mrs. Liddell had told us kids if we saw snakes, not to kill or hurt them, but to bring them to school where they would be put in the pen with the other snakes. It was my job to help take care and to help find lizards, mice, bugs, etc. to feed the snakes. I liked this and felt like a big shot. I had a key and could open the door, and I would reach in and get a certain snake and hold it or give it to Mrs. Liddell when she was giving a lecture on snakes.

We had a nice big fat blow snake. Maybe four or four and a half feet long. He was extremely cranky. He would often throw his head up and back, open his mouth real wide, and blow and hiss for all he was worth! This big blow snake kept getting out of the pen, and we couldn’t find out where he was getting out. Everything looked tight. I had caught him and put him back in the pen several times. Each time, he didn’t like it, and he would blow and make hissing noises! Also, he would let out a very unpleasant odor that was real hard to take.

My teacher, Mrs. Liddell, suggested we move my seat down against the snake pen so I could keep an eye on old blow snake to see how in the world he was getting out of his pen! This we did and one day, I watched the blow snake crawl up the side of the screen wall till he came to a place where two screens met and had been tied together. He pushed his head into what you would believe to be an impossibly small opening. Old blow snake began to push and push. The opening never gave, but the snake’s head and body flattened and, before we knew it, he was out of his pen. I had called our teacher and the whole class watched this, and a half inch thick, four and a half foot long snake crawled through a half inch opening. Unbelievable!

One day, at the farm, I and Andy found a very nice big fat, maybe three and a half foot long water snake, and that is a good size for a water snake, at least in this part of Utah. Up at the farm, out in the yard, was an old stove and into the oven of this stove, we put Mr. water snake. We wanted to take the water snake to school as Mrs. Liddell had asked us to do, if we found any kind of a snake, except a rattler.

However, Andy and I had a problem, “How to get the water snake to town and to school without dad finding out we had the snake!” This was our problem. It was about two miles to town, and we were usually in a wagon or on top of a load of loose hay, or us kids would be riding double on one of the horses. At night after school and weekends, we always had to go to the farm to work as there was always plenty of work to do.

I and Andy had that snake in the stove oven for a couple of weeks, and we were getting desperate as to how we were going to get him to school. Dad was always with us in the wagon going home each night. That snake had about as much chance of riding to town in the wagon with us, if dad knew we had him, as a fox would have looking for a fair trial if caught stealing chickens in a hen house. Dad didn’t like snakes! I and Andy knew this. He was plumb spooky of snakes, and I don’t believe he liked anybody that did like snakes.

Well, we were getting desperate. Andy and I had been catching grasshoppers, bugs, etc. feeding the snake. This time out at the farm, we were going home in an empty wagon. This wagon had a spring seat, enough room for three people to set in and be comfortable. Dad always made us ride on the seat with him so he could talk to us about school. Dad had great plans for his boys to get an education and to make something of themselves.

Andy and I had found an old gallon, maybe bigger, honey bucket, with a lid that clamped on the top. Andy said, “I’ll tell you what, Cotton, we’ll put the snake in the bucket, and when we get in the wagon, you sit in the middle, that way I’ll be on the outside and I’ll hold the bucket with the snake in it. Ok?” I said, “OK.” “And when he asks us what’s in the bucket, we will tell him we got some grasshoppers and a couple frogs for the snakes that Mrs. Liddell has in school. What do you say,?” Andy asked. Now dad knew all about our teacher and her snakes, so I thought a little and said, “Ok, Andy, I believe it will work.” It almost did.

I can still hear dad saying, “Well, boys it’s Saturday and we’ve done a good days work. Let’s call it a day. You boys hitch the team to the wagon while I change this setting of water and we’ll go home a little early.” I and Andy already running to the corral getting the horses and hooking them to the wagon. Then, waiting a few minutes for dad, Andy had the snake in the honey bucket and sitting on the far side of the seat. I told Andy, “Be sure to leave the lid open just a little so the water snake can breath.” “Yea, I know, don’t worry, the snake will be ok. It’s dad I’m worried about. If he looks in the bucket, he will give us the dickens, not only for having a snake, but especially for telling him such a big whopper of a lie!” We both were worrying. I know Andy was as scared as I was. For one thing, Dad never never would stand for any of us to tell him a lie. No matter how trivial or simple the lie was about. Dad was extremely honest and straight forward and he wanted to instill this principle into his children.

Dad came and I handed him the lines. He said, “How come you are sitting in the middle and how come you want me to drive?” I said, “Oh, I don’t know. I just thought I would ride in the middle and let you drive for a change.” This was very unusual because I was always quarreling and arguing about me driving. If there was anything to do with the horses, that’s what I wanted to do, and the driver always sat on the right outside of the seat. Dad spoke to old Ted and Jack and we headed for town and home.

The horses traveled at a fast walk and sometimes a slow trot. Dad asked Andy what he had in the bucket. Andy said, “I and Cotton caught some grasshoppers and a couple small frogs for the snakes at school. Mrs. Liddell asked us to try and get something for them to eat. “Well, I don’t know,” dad replied, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to have snakes in school, and besides, to feed them poor grasshoppers and especially the frogs to them snakes. I don’t like it! Them frogs do a lot of good. They catch mosquitoes, bugs, insects, etc. They do a lot of good!” Dad never doubted for a second but what we were telling the truth!

Everything went fine. Just as we came into town, we were about to pass the Billy Tidwell home. Mr. and Mrs. Tidwell were sitting out on their porch and as we came along, they called, “Hello, Al!” Dad said, “Whoa!” and stopped the team. Mr. and Mrs. Tidwell both walked out to the wagon and began to talk to dad about the farm and about our milk cow that had got bloated real bad a few days before. Mr. Tidwell had stuck the cow in the left side to let the gas out and to keep the cow from dying.

All this time, Andy is holding the snake in the bucket and is leaving the lid open just a little so the snake could have air to breath. Well, glory be, holy smokes! Mr. water snake got tired of being in that bucket. He flattened himself and crawled out through the crack in the lid. Andy was busy listening to dad and Mr. and Mrs. Tidwell talking. I happened to look down and that water snake was almost all the way across my lap and well up and starting across my father’s lap. Boy howdy, I gulped and swallowed, missed a couple heart beats! I nudged Andy with my elbow. He looked down. We just sat and stared! Boy oh boy, I’ll never forget it. As I write this, I have to laugh and laugh. But at that time, it was no joke and, above all, no laughing matter!

Holy smokes! All at once, dad looked down. He saw that water snake! Dad let out a scream I’m sure they heard in the next county! Dad picked up the snake, quick as a flash, gave it a throw, the harness lines, everything! But the doggone snake lit either on Mrs. Tidwell or at her feet. She let out a scream and ran into her house! The team, it was a good thing, it was old Ted and Jack. If it had been Bess and Nelly, they would have runaway. Old Ted and Jack took a few steps, dad ran, picked up the lines, said “Whoa” and they stopped.

Dad said, “Boys, come with me.” He led us over to the Tidwell home. Mr. Tidwell was standing in the yard. Dad said, “Mr. Tidwell, will you ask Mrs. Tidwell to come out here. My boys have something to say to you people.” The door was open, Mrs. Tidwell could hear father, and she came out of the house into the yard where we were all standing. “Dad said, “Now, Mr. and Mrs. Tidwell, I didn’t know these boys had that water snake. I am terribly embarrassed. Now, Andy and Cotton, I want you boys to start at the beginning and tell the whole story about that snake. Don’t miss a single detail. Then when we get home, I’ll take care of you.” We both knew we were in for a licking, but we told the story.

We told how we had caught the snake two weeks before, how we had kept it in an old stove oven, how we caught grasshoppers and put them in the oven for the snake to feed on. We said we knew dad didn’t like snakes and we were afraid he would make us turn it loose or perhaps kill it. We told about how our teacher had told us boys if we seen any water snakes or blow snakes to bring them to school. We told we didn’t know any other way to get the snake to town so we decided to put it in the bucket and that Andy was supposed to keep the lid open a little so the snake could have air, and because the lid was open a little, the snake got out, crawled across my lap and onto the father’s lap.

Dad said, “Cloye, did you see the snake when it crossed your lap?” “Yes, I did,” I replied. “Then why didn’t you tell me instead of letting the thing scare the socks off me?” I and Andy replied, “We were afraid to say anything and we hoped it would turn back so we could catch it!” By this time, dad and Mr. and Mrs. Tidwell had gotten over their scare. They were all laughing and, what I mean, they really did laugh. Ha ha! Mr. Tidwell had laughed from the beginning. Mrs. Tidwell said, “I thought you were playing a joke on us!” Wiping the tears from her eyes because she had laughed so hard.

Well, this about covers the territory of the water snake. I think now, fifty six years later, if Andy and I had told dad, he would have helped us and everything would have been okay. But we were just buttons and beginning to spread out in the word and we did what we thought we had to do to get the snake to school.

During all this commotion, dad throwing the snake either on or at Mrs. Tidwell’s feet, also throwing the harness lines away and then jumping off the wagon and running, grabbing the lines and stopping the team, the water snake completely away, and I hope he raised a big family and had a long got and happy life.