--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Bergstrom, George collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 26 number: 10 published: 1923-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'George Bergstrom, "The Fight", *Improvement Era* 26, no. 10 (August 1923): 877–879.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera26010unse start_page: 877 end_page: 879 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1923-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26010unse publication_year: 1923 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1923, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Fight The Fight By George Bergstrom, Scoutmaster, Troop 23 A., and Deputy Commissioner Mt. Ogden Stake The King snake slowly glided out from his hole from under the roots of a large alder tree that grew at the edge of the stream. He was a beautiful specimen nearly a yard in length, his body encircled with beautiful red, white and black rings ar- ranged alternately the full length of his smooth body. His black snout and fairly distinct head with its band of white broadening out toward the temples seemed to offset his lithe form. His black forked tongue moved out and in continually. He was hungry. The large field mouse that he had devoured the day before was entirely gone, and having a rather voracious appetite the pangs of hunger had called him from his den from under the roots of the alder tree. Gliding smoothly and swiftly he left the bed of the stream for higher ground, the warm, balmy California atmosphere, the hot semi-sandy soil adding life and zest to his movements. After crossing a large open space, choosing a route that seemed to blend more or less harmoniously with his coloring he carefully threaded his way through the fragrant manzanita and buck- thorn bushes. He had traveled probably two hundred yards in this fashion when he suddenly stopped as if he sensed some prey or enemy. He became absolutely motionless, his head raised slightly, its neck arched and his eyes glittering, his tongue moving out and in with great rapidity. It seemed many minutes before he again glided forth; this time more noiseless, alert and wary than before. A short distance away on a small knoll in an open space stalking a squirrel lay a huge Western Diamond Rattler. Its large head flat and heart shaped was raised a few inches above the ground. Its eyes were glittering. Its body nearly five feet in length lay semi-coiled in an attitude of strike. So intent was it on its prey that it did not see the approach of its enemy, the King snake, until he was within a few feet of it. The King snake coming around the knoll evidently had not seen the rattlesnake until about the same moment. It was an accidental meeting. The body of the rattler became bloated, seemed to increase tremendously in size and at the same time the ominous warning sound and the rattier "Burr-r-r-r, burr-r-r-r, burr-r-r-r!" The King 878 IMPROVEMENT ERA snake stopped and became motionless. The rattler's body had been thrown into a graceful symmetrical coil. Its eyes had a sort of glassy stare; the neck was arched in an oblique bow sup- porting the flat heart-shaped head. The continual moving ton- gue and whirring rattle denoted a formidable enemy. Its at- titude was one to give the impression that it was thoroughly capable of defending its life. It was a sight that would cause the most brave to hesitate. It made no other hostile movement. The King snake had remained motionless; but his fighting disposition had been thoroughly aroused. He delighted to pick a quarrel. The incessant monotonous whirring of the rattle annoyed and angered him. He keenly enjoyed a battle for battle's sake ; rattler or otherwise. Suddenly he lowered his head as if he decided that the larger snake was the master of the situation and started to crawl away seemingly quite uncon- cerned. Nevertheless he was not. The rattling ceased though the snake did not mme its body for a few moments. Gradually it unwound its coils seemingly satisfied that its enemy had left. It also started for cover. Quick as a flash, like one whose fury had all been unloosed the King snake who was a short distance away, whipped around, charged the rattler and came within a few feet of his antagonist. The rattler, taken by surprise coiled again and prepared to strike should the other come within range. The ominous warning came again insistant and constant. The King snake with all his fury and fighting instinct aroused began to glide forward, back and forth in front of the coiled snake. The rattler was also working itself into a frenzy perhaps sensing its doom. It would strike at the first oppor- tunity, sink its poisonous fangs deep in its enemy, then crawl to cover. The King snake drew nearer, almost within striking distance. His eyes were glittering with the light of conquest; his movements lithe, deliberate and confident. Raising a consider- able portion of his body from the ground he seemed to close in for an attack, his head moving back and forth. Angered out of all reason and as quick as a flash the rattler struck with all the force of its pent up fury and tremendous body. Quicker still the lithe head and body of the King moved to one side. What followed happened so quickly the eye could hardly see. In a trice the body of the rattler was in the coils of the King snake for he had wrapped his lithe body around that of the large snake before it had time to coil itself for another strike. Then came the struggle; the fight for supremacy; the fight until death. The rattler with its virulent poison; the King snake with its terrible constricting coils. Which would win? Nearly the whole length of the King snake had by this time THE FIGHT 879 been coiled around the other snake. He seemed to constrict himself, to draw himself up, tighter and tighter; to squeeze and squeeze. In fury the rattler turned and twisted, struck time and time again, sinking its fangs deeper and deeper each time injecting its poison freely into the body of its adversary; but to no in ail, for the King snake is immune to snake poison. However, the wounds enraged him, made him fight harder and harder. Slowly but surely he was killing his enemy. He contin- ued to wind his shining body around and around the doomed creature until' every part of it was engaged. More slowly and surely he continued to constrict himself and squeeze, no matter how the other twisted, fought and struck. Tighter and tighter grew the coils, his strength seeming to increase in such propor- tion that the struggling ^iper could not breathe nor bite, and was finally suffocated. The fight was over. The larger snake no longer offered re- sistance, but lay inert except for the twitching of a few muscles. The King snake was satisfied at last. He had lived up to his reputation. He was king. After a few moments he gradually uncoiled himself, working his body free from the other and with the air of a conqueror, looking neither right nor left, he contin- ued on in search of his belated dinner. Ogden, Utah. The Chub Hole The rain drops purr on the gray water That slides by its low, grassy bank; The blue cranes and snipes wing down the valley, Where the cattails and wiregrass are dank. There is balm and witchery in the sunshine That glimmers through the golden nimbused cloud; And the nesting ducks are moored on the bayou, Tranquil, brown-backed and proud. The chubs, like fleeting silver flashes, Are whipping through the eel-grass and mud, Or dozing in the shadows of the bulrushes, 'Neath the margins of the long, lean flood. Oh, the drowsy day is joyous and haze-laden; Summer's artistry is blue upon the hills, And the fisherman is musing o'er his angleworms, While his glad heart carols as it wills. Nephi, Utah. Ezra J. Poulsen.