A Villager found a Snake under a hedge, almost dead with cold. Having
compassion on the poor creature, he brought it home, and laid it upon
the hearth near the fire, where it had not lain long before it revived
with the heat, and began to erect itself, and fly at the wife and
children of its preserver, filling the whole cottage with its frightful
hissings. The Countryman hearing an outcry, came in, and perceiving how
the matter stood, took up a mattock, and soon dispatched the ingrate,
upbraiding him at the same time in these words: Is this, vile wretch,
the reward you make to him that saved your life? Die, as you deserve;
but a single death is too good for you.