I encountered a rattler about this size on my walk in the foothills today. He wasn't coiled, didn't seem threatened, wasn't rattled. He just slinked away behind a rock and underneath a sage bush. He didn't speak to me, didn't try to lure me away. He just slithered, silently. And as I walked away thinking about him (and looking more closely under rocks and sage as I passed by), I thought what a perfect symbol he is of the master tempter: subtle, sometimes easy to miss, but deadly. Forked tongue, beady eyes, strong, quick. And the boy knew what he is when he picked him up.