wasp

## The Wasp and the Snake

A WASP seated himself upon the head of a Snake and, striking him unceasingly with his stings, wounded him to death.

It had a great mouth, with a row of sharp teeth a foot long; but its head was joined to the pudgy body by a neck as slender as a wasp’s waist.

The house was as still as still, but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch-scratch in the world--a noise as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane--the dry scratch of a snake’s scales on brick-work.