A Villager found a Snake under a hedge, almost dead with cold. He could not help having a compassion¹ for the poor creature, so he brought it home, and laid it upon the hearth² near the fire; but it had not lain there long, before (being revived with the heat) it began to erect³ itself, and fly at his wife and children. The Countryman, hearing an outcry, and perceiving what the matter was, caught up a mattock, and soon dispatched him, upbraiding⁴ him at the same time in these words: "Is this, vile⁵ wretch⁶, the reward you make to him that saved your life?"

Kindness to the ungrateful and the vicious is thrown away.