Emmy looked around her. The sun felt warm on her face. She turned around as far as she could to look back toward the house.
Mama hadn't come back yet.
Papa and Davey were in the big storage barn working on the wagon and couldn't see or hear her.
What was she going to do?
Just then Emmy saw movement of some kind out of the corner of her eye.
She turned her head and there was a long black snake crawling along the top of the mud.
Every now and then, the snake would lift its head and flick out its tongue. It continued to crawl along the top of the mud and it looked....like it was crawling right toward where Emmy was stuck.
"No, no," whispered Emmy.
Emmy hated snakes! She hated them worse than the spiders in the corner of the tool shed. She hated them worse than the big rats that ran when she opened up the door of the grain shed.
Emmy loved frogs and toads and turtles, but she hated snakes!!!
Snakes made Emmy shiver and made her legs shake out of fear.
"Papa!" Emmy screamed.
The snake stopped its crawling and raised its head. It looked right at Emmy.
Emmy stood very still.
The snake lay very still.
Emmy quietly and carefully tried to lift one of her legs. It was stuck. She could wiggle her toes inside her boots, but that was all.
She was stuck and she was stuck good!