Animals: Pet

At his school in Clearwater, Fla., Charles Martin, 13, listened to a lecture on snakes, heard that most snakes are not harmful. Soon after that, while on a fishingtrip, he saw a young snake little more than a foot long, decided to capture ot amd study its habits. A friend helped him get it into a cage, carry it home. There Charles Martin made a pet of his, amused himself by playing with it, poking his finger into the cage to see what the snake would do. He did not know was a poisonous rattlesnake. One day the snake grew tired of play. It coiled, struck, bit Charles Martin on the finger. But Charles Martin did not die. He sucked his finger, recovered from the wound. The rattlesnake died.