Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)
21. The Farmer and the Snake (Perry
176)
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 am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel.'
The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.
George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is
in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project
Gutenberg.
Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with
illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google
Books. |