Hide and Snake

Summary
The kids learn that a snake they have captured may be poisonous, but not before it gets loose in Arthur's house.

Plot
One day, Arthur runs off to the woods to play a game of hide and seek, but before he goes, his Mom asks him about cleaning his room and giving Pal his bath. Arthur promises to do those things when he gets home.

At the woods, Brain, Buster, Sue Ellen, and Arthur hide while Binky counts backwards from 100. When Binky's done counting he waits for 20 minutes by the tree and then the gang comes out telling him that he didn't try to find them.

Binky tells them that he thought that they were supposed to hide and then seek him. When Sue Ellen tells Binky that she can't believe that he doesn't know how to play hide and seek Binky taps the gang and tells them that he fooled them and was playing a trick on them.

Arthur feels someone tickling his back and pulls out a snake. The gang find the snake to be pretty cool. Buster suggests that they should take him to the Sugar Bowl and they can all eat, but Brain says that cheeseburgers aren't apart of the snake's diet.

It then starts to thunder and Arthur thinks that someone should take the snake or else he'll be stuck in the rain. Buster and Binky both shake their heads no and Sue Ellen says that she can't because her parents saw enough snakes in the Amazon to last a lifetime.

Brain says that he can't because he had an incident with a porcupine and is now not allowed to bring pets in his house without permission.

Arthur decides to take the snake home and believes that his parents won't care because they never said that he couldn't and that the snake won't hurt a fly. Arthur puts the snake in a box and decides to put it in his room.

On his way to his room, he runs into D.W. and she asks him what's in the box. He tells her that it's a present for Pal and that she can't look at it because it's a surprise.

After dinner, Arthur tells his parents that he's going up to his room to clean it. He then asks his parents if an animal such as a snake was to follow him home, if he could keep it. His parents say No and tell him to go clean his room.

The doorbell rings and it's Arthur's friends and they ask to come in. Arthur tells them they can stay only for a minute because he has to clean his room and that they have to take the snake with them.

The gang reveals that the snake might be the dangerous poisonous Coral Snake. They rush up to Arthur's room, but when Arthur opens the box the snake is gone. The gang search through Arthur's messy room for it.

Downstairs in the kitchen, Arthur's Mom hears the gang moving stuff in the room and believes that they are playing to which she tells Arthur's Dad that she's gonna have a serious talk with Arthur about handling his responsibilities.

When Arthur's Mom knocks on the door, she tells Arthur that it's time for his friends to go home because he promised to clean his room, but when she opens the door she finds the room is already cleaned up and tells Arthur and his friends that they did a good job cleaning it.

Binky then spots the snake slithering out of the room and screams a little bit. When Arthur's Mom asks Binky what's wrong, Binky says that the book one the lower shelf is on the wrong shelf and puts it on the right shelf.

Arthur's Mom begins to suspect that something is going on and leaves to go back downstairs. After Arthur's Mom goes downstairs, Arthur and the gang decide to search for the snake. Brain tells Binky and Buster to go downstairs while he, Arthur, and Buster cover the rooms upstairs. They check D.W.'s room, but all they find is her jump rope.

Brain then says that snakes are attracted to water and they hear a loud dramatic scream, followed by D.W. running out of the bathroom shouting, "A sea serpent! A sea serpent!" Arthur, Brain, and Sue Ellen check the bathroom, but the Brain accidentally leans on the switch causing the lights to turn off; Arthur briefly mistaken it for a power failure.

He turns the lights back on and Arthur and Sue Ellen spot the snake, but Brain accidentally leans back onto the switch nervously and switches the lights back off.

Downstairs, Arthur's Mom is telling Arthur's Dad that she finds it kind of suspicious that Arthur's friends helped him clean his room when D.W. comes in saying "There's a sea serpent in the bathtub." Arthur's Mom then goes into the bathroom and finds Arthur, Sue Ellen, and Brain washing Pal and the snake slithers right by her and she doesn't notice it and leaves the room still suspicious of what Arthur and his friends are up to.

Arthur, Sue Ellen, and Brain then spot the snake going into Arthur's Parents' bedroom to which Arthur says that they shouldn't go into his parents' bedroom but changes his mind when Sue Ellen says "You want them to find the snake?"

Inside Arthur's parents' bedroom, they find boxes and begin looking for the snake in them when Arthur's Mom comes in asking, "Looking for something?" Arthur and his friends volunteer to take the boxes downstairs, to which Arthur's Mom says, "That would be very helpful".

Once downstairs, the snake appears in the box that Arthur is carrying, and it jumps out and slithers away; Arthur and Sue Ellen and Brain find Buster and Binky in the kitchen and tell them to search the rooms downstairs for the snake.

Arthur hears his dad in the living room complaining about the T.V. getting worse because it's fuzzy. Arthur sees the snake laying on the chords of the T.V., and manages to get it to move off the chords and the T.V. screen returns to normal. However, the snake slithers out of the living room, and Arthur grabs D.W. and they follow the snake into the kitchen.

Arthur asks D.W. to help him find the snake and in return he promises to read her the book Hopalong The Frog every night for a month, to which D.W. agrees. Arthur's Mom comes in and tells the kids that she doesn't like them playing hide and seek in the house, and asks Arthur to take the snake out of Pal's dish to which she screams, "Snake?!"

The gang comes running in, screaming "Where?!" The Brain takes Pal's dish and looks at the snake and realizes that it's not a dangerous Coral Snake, but a harmless King Snake. Arthur's Dad comes in and says that he used to see King Snakes all around Elwood City when he was the kids' age.

He also tells the kids that because of the King Snake's coloring, some people confuse him with the very dangerous Coral Snake. He also asks how the snake got in the house, and everyone looks at Arthur. So, Arthur tells his parents the truth about the snake.

The next day, Arthur and the gang return the snake to the woods where they found it and Arthur asks the gang if they want to finish their game of hide and seek, to which they say that they will if Arthur promises not to pull out a snake again, and Arthur promises that he won't. He counts backwards from 99 while the gang hide, and the episode ends.

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * The Brain
 * Binky Barnes
 * Snake
 * Jane Read
 * David Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Kate Read(cameo)
 * Pal(cameo)
 * Mr. Armstrong (mentioned)
 * Mrs. Armstrong(mentioned)

Trivia

 * According to the narration, the snake is a male.
 * The rhyme for how to tell King and Coral snakes apart is "Red band near black: venom lack. Red band near yellow: bite a fellow."
 * This is the second snake to appear in the series. The first is Victoria (snake).
 * Running Gag:the snake is capable of opening the kitchen cabinet door.

Episode connections

 * Arthur mentions Hopalong the Frog from "D.W.'s Library Card."
 * Arthur and Buster encounter a milk snake in "The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur."

Home Video
DVD: VHS:
 * Arthur's Pet Follies
 * Arthur's Pet Follies