“Now one bad habit almost always leads to another.  From cheating, Mr. Snake just naturally slipped to stealing.  Yes, Sir, he became a thief.  Of course that made trouble right away, but still no one suspected Mr. Snake.  He was always very polite to every one and always offering to do favors for his neighbors.  In fact, Mr. Snake was very well liked and much respected.  When any one had been robbed, he was always the first to offer sympathy and join in the hunt for the thief.  He was so spry and slim, and could slip through the tall grass so fast, that he could go almost where he pleased without being seen, and this made him very bold.  If he did happen to be found near the scene of trouble, he always had a story ready to account for his presence, and it sounded so true, and he told it in such an honest manner, that no one thought of doubting it.

“So Mr. Snake found that lying helped him to cheat and steal, and all the time he kept thinking how smart he was.  But even Mr. Snake had a little bit of conscience, and once in a while it would trouble him.  So what do you think he did?  Why, cheating had become such a habit with him that he actually tried to cheat himself—­to cheat his conscience!  When he was telling a lie, he would wink one eye.  ‘That,’ said he to himself, ’means that it isn’t true, and if these folks are not smart enough to see me wink and know what it means, it is their own fault if they believe what I am telling them.’  But always he took care to wink the eye that was turned away from the one he was talking to.

“Dear me, dear me, such terrible times as there were on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest!  They grew worse and worse, and when at last Old Mother Nature came to see how all the little people were getting along, she heard so many complaints that she hardly knew where to begin to straighten matters out.  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: