Read the Sun Sentinel's award-winning journalism



Dear Ann Landers: Please reprint the letter about the girl who picked up a poisonous snake and it bit her. I'm a therapist and have used that story with patients who become involved in one self-destructive relationship after another because they refuse to learn from experience. - Forewarned in Florida

Dear Florida: Here it is, and I must say it's an excellent example of self-destruction: A young girl was trudging along a mountain path, trying to reach her grandmother's house. It was bitter cold, and the wind cut like a knife. When she was within sight of her destination, she heard a rustle at her feet.

Looking down, she saw a snake, which spoke to her. He said, "I am about to die. It is too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you."


"No, no," said the snake. "If you help me, you will be my friend. I will treat you differently."

The little girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over. She looked at the markings on the snake and had to admit that it was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.


The little girl reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and proceeded toward her grandmother's house. In a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her.

"How could you do this to me?" she cried. "You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!" "You knew what I was when you picked me up," hissed the snake as he slithered away. Write to Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, Ill. 60611-0562.

Copyright © 2019, Sun Sentinel