Gateway to the Classics: The Children's Book by Horace E. Scudder
 
The Children's Book by  Horace E. Scudder

The Traveler and the Viper

A Traveler, going along the road in winter, saw a Viper stiff with cold, and taking pity on it, took it up and placed it in his bosom to warm it back into life. Now the Viper, as long as he was still cold, lay quiet, but as soon as he was well warmed he drove his fangs into the man’s breast. And as the man was dying, he said: "I suffer justly, for why should I have taken care of the dying Viper, when I ought to have killed him, though he had been in the best of health?"

So there are some men who show favors to others, and fail to see that they will only get stings in return.


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