Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Countryman and the Snake



The Countryman and the Snake

A countryman's son accidentally stepped on a snake's tail. The snake turned and bit the young man who soon thereafter died. In a rage, the father went after the snake with his axe and cut off its tail. Infuriated, the snake started killing the countryman's cattle. Now, instead of retaliating, the countryman thought it best to make peace with the snake and so he brought food and honey to its lair. The countryman called into the hole, "Let's forgive and forget. My son was wrong and you punished him. My reaction was understandable but certainly uncalled for. That you would take vengeance on my cattle comes as no surprise. However, now that we have each had our retribution perhaps it is best to put all of this behind us." The snake slithered toward the countryman and got all up in his face. "Look at this tail!" cried the snake. "Just look at it! Do you think I'm ever going to get a mate with this thing?" The snake paused for dramatic effect. "Listen Pal, by the time my lawyer gets through with you you'll be pleading for me to bite you too." The snake then turned and started to slither away but then stopped and looked back toward the countryman. "I'll see you in court!"

Moral: The only thing more lethal than a snake bite is litigation

5 comments:

Crafty Dogma said...

Seriously, if you were to make a few more you could publish them as a book. I'd buy it for sure.

Morley Musick said...

Thank you for all of the kind words Adriana. I've been encouraged to go down the book road in the past and I put forth a really good effort only to never have anything materialize. This isn't to say I shouldn't try. I'd just like to know of a collage-friendly publisher out there.

Collage making for me is just as much about storytelling. My website is all collage and stories. I post at hughmusick.com

Thank you again. This is a wonderful community.

Wastedpapiers said...

Great stuff! Brilliant story too!

Scrapatorium said...

I really like the background on this one. Did you make it or is it printed that way?

Another great story and I'm with Adriana on that book thing.

Roadside Encyclopedist said...

Thank you. The background is a bunch of individual pieces cut from different scraps in various shades of green. I used to do a number of pieces like this a long time ago. It is very time consuming, but I find it an enjoyable process. It's almost like making a mosaic.

If you know of a sympathic publisher I'm all ears. My artistic hero, Glen Baxter spent many years making his brilliant absurdist cartoons before finally finding a book publisher in The Netherlands, but that was almost 30 years ago.