Mann while she moved about the room, and when she stood to
pour out our coffee. It was long before I could make up my mind to end
the visit, and I returned soon after with a friend to see my snake-taming
acquaintance again. The snakes seemed very obedient, and remained in their
cupboard when told to do so." [Footnote: Romanes' _Animal Intelligence_,
pp. 260, 261.]
Although I tell you this strange story, I do not think I should like to
make a pet of any serpent, however tame it might be; because it was this
creature, "more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had
made"--which that enemy of God and of the souls of men, who is spoken of
in the last book of the Bible as "that old serpent, called the Devil, and
Satan, which deceiveth the whole world," used as an instrument, when he
came to tempt Eve in the garden of Eden.
The word Eden means "pleasure"; and when we were talking of that delightful
place--that garden which God planted, and where He put the man whom He had
formed--the little ones were asked to tell all they knew about it.
Leslie's answer was, "It was God's garden"; and Eustace and Dick told of
the two trees which were there, "the tree of life also, in the midst of the
garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
It was of this tree that Sharley and Chris spoke, when they answered the
question--
"There was something in the Garden of Eden to remind Adam and Eve that they
were God's creatures, subject to Him.
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