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E) Fill in the blanks with the articles.

Yesterday when … bright sun blazed down on … wilted corn my father and I walked around … edge of … new ground to plan … fence. Planning it was our first consideration. My father walked in.. cornbalk. Bob, our Collie, content with our company, walked in front of my father. We heard … ground squirrel whistle down over … bluff among … dead treetops at … clearing 's edge. "Whoop, take him, Bob," said my father. He is convinced that … ground squirrels are pests. They dig up rows of corn and eat … sweet grains. … young corn stalks are killed and we have to replant … corn.

I can see my father has very much … mind to keep sicking Bob after … ground squirrel. Bob started to run toward … ground squirrel. I, too, started running toward … clearing's edge where he was jumping and barking. "It's … big bull blacksnake," said my father. "Kill him, Bob! Kill him, Bob!"

Bob was jumping and snapping at … snake apt to kill it. He was ready to take hazards. And that scene didn’t appeal to me. " Let us not kill … snake," I said turning to my father. "… blacksnake is … harmless snake. It kills poison snakes and it catches more mice from … fields than … cat."

I could see … snake didn't want to fight … dog but wanted to get away. I wondered why it was crawling toward … heap of black loamy earth at … bench of … hill. I looked as … snake lifted its pretty head in response to one of Bob's jumps. " It's not … bull blacksnake," I said. "It's … she-snake. Look at … white on her throat."

“… snake is … enemy to me," my father snapped. He was as hard as nails. " I hate … snake. We’ll commit no crime killing it. Bob, go in there and get that snake and quit playing with it!"

Bob obeyed my father. He was … hunter that wants finding. I couldn’t endure to see him take this snake by … throat. She was so beautifully poised in … sunlight. Bob grabbed … white patch on her throat and cracked her long body like … ox whip in … wind. … blood spurted from her fine-curved throat. Something hit against my legs like pellets. It was snake eggs. Bob had slung them from her body. She was going to … sand heap to lay her eggs, where … sun is.. setting-hen that warms them and hatches them.

"Look at … eggs, won't you?" said my father. I picked … egg up and held it in my hand. I felt acute pain. Only … minute ago there was life in it. It was … immature seed. It would not hatch. Mother sun could not incubate it on … warm earth.

"Well, Bob, I guess you see now why this snake couldn't fight," I said, "It is life. Stronger devour … weaker even among human beings. Dog kills snake. Snake kills birds. Birds kill … butterflies. Man conquers all. Man, too, kills for sport."

Bob was panting. He walked ahead of us back to … house, dog-tired. We walked toward … house. Neither my father nor I spoke. I thought about … agony women know of giving birth. I thought about how they will fight to save their children. Then, I thought of … snake. I thought it was silly for me to think such thoughts.

… next morning we were passing … place where we had found … snake. I walked out … corn row where we had come yesterday after­noon. I looked in front of me and saw something moving like … huge black rope. "Steady," I told my father. "Here is … bull blacksnake." He took one step up beside me and stood. His eyes grew wide apart.

"What do you know about this," he said.

"You have seen … bull blacksnake now," I said. "Take … good look at him! He is lying beside his dead mate. He has come to her. He, perhaps, was on her trail yesterday."

… male snake had trailed her to her doom. He had come in … night to find his lover dead. He was coiled beside her, and she was dead. … bull blacksnake lifted his head and followed us as we walked around … dead snake. He would have fought us to his death. He would have fought Bob to his death. "Take … stick," said my father," and throw him over … hill so Bob won't find him. Did you ever see anything to beat that? I've heard they'd do that. But this is my first time to see it." I took … stick and threw him over … bank into.. dewy sprouts on … cliff.