Tag Archives: The Farmer and the Snake

120.The Farmer and the Snake

ONE WINTER a farmer found a snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound.

“Oh,” cried the farmer with his last breath, “I deserved that . . . for pitying a scoundrel.”

The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.

When you see a snake, think twice before getting close to it.

Standing and walking on your own two feet with long and thick woolen socks on, is hardly a nasty mistake in a European snake terrain.