She had all the little
people come before her in turn and tell their troubles. When it came
Mr. Snake's turn, he had no complaint to make. He seemed to be the
only one who had no troubles. She asked him a great many questions,
and for each one he had a ready reply. Of course a great many of these
replies were lies, and every time he told one of these, he winked
without knowing it. You see, it had become a habit.
"Now, with all his smartness, Mr. Snake had forgotten one thing, one
very important thing. It was this: You can't fool Old Mother Nature,
and it is of no use to try. He hadn't been talking three minutes
before she knew who was at the bottom of all the trouble. She let him
finish, then called all the others about her and told them who had
made all the trouble. Mr. Snake was very bold. He held his head very
high in the air and pretended not to care. When Old Mother Nature
turned her head, he even ran out his tongue at her, just as all the
Snake family do at you and me to-day. When she had finished telling
them how cheating and stealing and lying isn't smart at all, but very,
very dreadful, she turned to Mr. Snake and said:
"'From this time on, no one will believe anything you say, and you
shall have no friends. You will never wink again, for you and your
children and your children's children forever will have no eyelids,
that all the world may know that those who make a wrong use of the
things given them shall have them taken away.
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