we are subtle, as we are supple,(to himself, nice alliteration, don’t you think), and we are wise for we hold the histories of many clans in our thoughts.”

Buttons had lost interest through this lengthy peroration and was again watching Ssserek’s nether part.

“There is something there. I did see it. Look!” Buttons tapped Ssserek with a forepaw.

He swayed to his words with his head cocked to one side.

“You see?” Buttons poked him again.

Ssserek tried to continue, “My great-great-great grandfather, ten times removed, once . . .” The rippling of muscles reached his head, and he looked down.

“Wha . . . wha . . . what is it now, little one?”

“There. You see. It’s moving and I hear noise.” Buttons was fairly jumping up and down against Ssserek’s side. “You see?”

“Yes, of course, I see. It’s always there.”

“Well, what is it?”

“Humph! I’d thought you would know.”

“Why should I? I’ve never seen one before.”

“Hardly seems possible, but you’ve probably passed it innumerable times while asking questions of some poor soul.”

“I really don’t think so.” Buttons looked up at Ssserek quizzically. “No, I don’t really think so. It’s much too fascinating for that, don’t you agree?”

“But, of course. I am rather attached to it, you know.” Ssserek grinned out the side of his mouth. “Really, you know, that’s rather good. I’ll have to run that by badger one of these days.”

Fairly hopping in one place, Buttons paid scant attention to Ssserek’s comments for her own world had been reduced to his tail. “What does it do?”

“Well, well, you see, it rattles. But then, what would a rattle do but rattle? It is becoming.”

“You always have it with you?”

“What?” Ssserek lowered his head and gazed intently at Buttons. It was not all that easy, the gazing that is, for Buttons was bouncing from one forepaw to the next. “Well,” Ssserek thought, “at least she is jousting. I think.” “I just told you, I’m very attached to it.”

“And, well, you should be. Can I go look at it? It won’t hurt, will it? Does it always make that much noise? Does it keep you awake at night? Does it play?”

Before Ssserek could respond, Buttons was off, racing down Ssserek’s side. He muttered to himself at such cavalier treatment. “Yes, you can look at it. It has never hurt me. And no, it doesn’t always make so much noise, though I’ve gotten rather accustomed to it. And no, it doesn’t keep me awake at night. Why should it? And good heavens, NO!” Ssserek jerked his head backways just as Buttons leaped.

Needle-sharp teeth sank into Ssserek’s tail just before the rattle, sending writhing muscular convulsions racing forward.

His head snapped upward and back, fangs glistening in the morning air. Buttons let go as the rattle whipped to and fro, sending gouts of dust skyward.

“This is great.” Her words came in the midst of her joyous efforts to once again capture the rattles which now eluded her best leaps.

Ssserek’s fangs stopped a fraction of an inch short of Buttons’s round, black posterior. “Good lord!,”he exclaimed. “What now?”

With her head down, Buttons lay in wait for each passage of the rattle. With each passage of the tail, she would leap, snarling at her prey, grunting with the effort. Back and forth. Up and down. Worse than leaves in a whirlwind, her small body rose into the air in swift, quick jerks, her teeth snapping ever more closely. The motion began to make Ssserek dizzy, watching the two tearing the grass into shreds in their frenzied efforts.

“My God, I’m getting positively giddy. I’m too old for this. I’m tired.” And Ssserek rested.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh.” The throat of snakes was not made for such verbal abuse, but the only other recourse was entirely too lethal, though Ssserek was sorely tempted as sharp, stabbing pains once again assailed his brain.

Ssserek’s blunt snout thudded into Buttons’s rear, sending her spinning head over heals through the grass. “Whewwww! Hey, that’s fun. Can we do it again?” Bouncing to her feet, she braced herself for another rush, only to find herself looking squarely into the face of Ssserek, whose tail was ringed with white and black. It was now rapidly sidling away from another painful confrontation.

“We will think about it.”

Buttons was by now moving alongside Ssserek’s head. “Open.”

“Wha . . . wha . . . what?”

“Open, you know, your mouth.” Buttons’s nose was nearly touching Ssserek.

Tilting his head ever so slightly, Ssserek slowly allowed a small slit to appear.

“No, no. Wider.” Buttons was bouncing up and down on her