After creeping under the bottom rail of the fence, he raised his head a little, and looked round.  He said, “I see there’s another tenant here”—­Bruin was then alive and was sitting on the top of his stump eating gum leaves—­“I never saw that fellow so low down in the world before; I wonder what he is doing here; been lagged, I suppose for something or other.  He is a stupid, anyway, and won’t take any notice even if he sees me.”

Sam and Puss were both blinking their eyes in the shade of the lightwood, and whisking the flies from their ears.  Maggie was walking about with beak open, showing her parched tongue; the heat made her low-spirited.

The snake had crept as far as Philip’s mattress, which was lying on the grass, when Maggie saw him.  She instantly gave the alarm, “A snake, a snake!” for she knew he was a bad character.  Sam and Puss jumped up and began to bark; Joey said, “There is na luck aboot the hoose.”  Bruin was too stupid to say anything.  The snake said, “Here is a terrible row all at once, I must make for a hole.”  He had a keen eye for a hole, and he soon saw one.  It was a small one, in Philip’s mattress, almost hidden by the seam, and had been made most likely by a splinter or a nail.  The snake put his head in it, saying, “Any port in a storm,” then drew in his whole length, and settled himself comfortably among the straw.

Beasts and birds have instincts, and a certain amount of will and understanding, but no memory worth mentioning.  For that reason the domestics never told Philip about the snake in his mattress, they had forgotten all about it.  If Sam had buried a bone, he would have remembered it a week afterwards, if he was hungry; but as for snakes, it was, “out of sight, out of mind.”

Philip took in his mattress and blanket before sundown and made his bed.  The snake was still in the straw; he had been badly scared, and thought it would be best to keep quiet until he saw a chance to creep out, and continue his journey down the garden.  But it was awfully dark inside the mattress, and although he went round and round amongst the straw he could not find any way out of it, so at last he said:  “I must wait till morning,” and went to sleep.

When Philip went to bed the snake was disturbed, and woke up.  There was so heavy a weight on him that he could scarcely move, and he was almost suffocated.  He said:  “This is dreadful; I have been in many a tight place in my time, but never in one so tight as this.  Whatever am I to do?  I shall be squeezed to death if I don’t get away from this horrid monster on top of me.”

Philip fell asleep as usual, and by-and-by the snake began to flatten his ribs, and draw himself from under the load, until at last he was clear of it; then, heaving a deep sigh of relief he lay quiet for awhile to recover his breath.  He knew there was a hole somewhere if he could only find it and he kept poking his nose here and there against the mattress.