A Fable About Autism Speaks

[Guest guest]

by De La Fontaine

The Villager and the Serpent

Aesop tells of a peasant

Charitable, but not too wise

One winter's day was traveling

Around the land he tended.

He saw a serpent stretched out in the snow

Cold and frozen, paralyzed

Having little time to live.

The villager took him home

And, without considering the cost

Of such an action,

Laid him out before the fire

Warmed him and revived him.

The frozen serpent began to sense the warmth

Which revived his soul as well as his evil nature.

He lifted his head a bit and whistled;

Coiled his body and then struck

Against his benefactor, his saviour and his father.

" Ingrate! " said the peasant. " 'Tis thus you repay me?

You will die! " And with these words, in righteous rage

He took a knife and sliced the beast

Making 3 serpents with 2 cuts;

A trunk, a head, and a tail.

The evil one tried to rejoin himself

But 'twas to no avail.

Charity is a virtue but be careful toward whom

There's no point showing it to ingrates who seal

their own doom.