The Man and the Snake
Ambrose Bierce
Harker was in a good mood. He was comfortably sitting on the sofa in slippers and a bathrobe, holding 'Miracles of Science' in his hands. He was reading about animal magnetism inherent in snakes. The sages of past years believed in all sorts of nonsense, he thought ironically. Suddenly Harker heard a noise and lowered the book. He saw something strange in the dark corner of the room. Two glowing points like eyes were under the bed. He thought it was just the reflection of the lamp. But something disturbed the man. Perhaps it was just his intuition, or perhaps something read in the book led him to restless thoughts. Harker peered into the bright lights under the bed. Finally they shifted a little. Soon a real snake crawled out from under the bed.
Text Analysis: Unique words: 475 Total words: 1907
Hard words: reincarnated, attending, shouted, nubian, allowed, unclothed, tempered, reincarnate, returned, considered, taken, admitted, decided, pulled, defence, supposing, swearing, recovered, thoughtless, escaping, reincarnation, trying, upsetting, practicing, unforgiving, coolly, felt, biting, looking, otter