Mrs. Harris's Encounter with a Black Snake

“Mrs. Harris then said, “I have been walking around in the woods to look at the situation of your place, and as I turned around to come home, a tremendous black snake stuck up mie head before me, and commenced hissing at me.” The woman was so perplexed ae disappointed in all her undertakings, that she left the house and took lodgings during her stay in Pennsylvania with a near neighbor, to whom she stated that the day previous she had been hunting for the plates, and that, after a tedious search, she at length came to a spot where she judged, from the appearance of things, they must be buried; but upon stooping down to scrape away the snow and leaves, in order to ascertain the fact, she encountered a horrible black snake, which gave her a terrible fright, and she ran with all possible speed to the house. — Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, Chapter XXIV”