One day, I put on my pretty yellow boots that came clear to my knees.  

I was going to play in the mud behind the wood shed.  

As I took a step, I sank into a hole and was stuck in the mud, clear up to my waist.

i started yelling for Momma.

"Help!  Momma come quick.  I'm stuck!"

Momma was in the house and I guess she didn't hear me.

"Mom-ma!" I yelled.

Just then I looked down.   A long black snake was swimming right on top of the mud and HE WAS COMING AT ME!

I tried to wiggle out of my boots, but I was stuck fast.

I started yelling again, and the snake stopped, lifted his head and looked at me.

What was he going to do?   Was he going to coil around me?   Was he going to bite me?  

I stood very still and shook very hard.

The snake must have had some place else to go because he turned and started swimming away from me.   (He probably was more scared of me than I was of him.)

"Mom-ma!" I screamed.

This time Momma must have heard me because she came running out of the back door.

"What in the world." she exclaimed.

"I got stuck in the mud...and...there was this really big, long, black snake with a yellow stripe down its back...and..."

Momma said, "I'll be right back."

What if the snake came back?

"Mom-ma!" I yelled.

Momma came back with a big long board.   She laid it down on the mud and walked out to where I was stuck.   She reached down, grabbed me under the armpits and pulled me out of the mud and onto the board.

My pretty yellow boots stayed stuck.

When Momma told Daddy what had happened, he got a grouchy face.   He had to go out after supper, walk across the board and dig my boots out of the mud.  

Momma washed them off for me and set them out on the porch to dry.   "Please don't do that again," she begged.

"Don't you worry, Momma." I said.   I'm never going back there again.   I don't want to ever see that snake."

"No," Momma said, "I mean, don't get your boots stuck again...oh...never mind."