by the time the sun was over the tree-tops, she wished she had chosen some other place, and thought best to stop and talk to some of her friends about it. when she returned she found herself obliged to cast her skin, which had been growing tight and dry for some time. this was hard work, and she was too tired to go on with her home-making, so she lay in the sunshine and admired her beautiful, long, and shining body of reddish brown spotted with black. her rattle had eight joints now, for when a rattlesnake casts the old skin a new joint is always uncovered at the end of the tail. she waved it quickly to see how an eight-jointed rattle would sound. "lovely!" she said. "lovely! like the seeds of the wild cucumber shaking around in their dry and prickly case."