The Viper

While tending the spruce field, I had set myself a reward: whenever I finished the work I had planned, I was allowed to go into the forest for mushrooms or lingonberries. A rain cloud had just passed over and soaked the field, so I could no longer work there that day.

I set off for the clearing. The lingonberries were ripe and red and tempted me to pick them. I moved the basket from tussock to tussock as I gathered them.

When I came home, I poured the berries onto a cloth spread over the table to dry and decided to clean them the next morning.

Later that evening I suddenly noticed what looked like a handle among the berries. At first I thought a frog had got into my basket from the tussock, but no. It was a young viper, about twenty or thirty centimetres long, with a zigzag pattern on its back. I lifted it out of the berries, put it into a glass jar, made air holes in the lid and carried it outside.

Early the next morning I brought the jar back indoors. The family got up and were very surprised to see what sort of creature I had brought home this time.

It was a wonder that it had not bitten me while I walked out of the forest with the basket on my arm. It was rather aggressive, flicking its tongue and ready to defend itself.

I said to the little snake, 'You did not harm me, and I will repay you in the same way.' I took it to the forest near our home and released it from the jar.

It began crawling towards me again. I gently pushed it aside with a stick, wished it a good journey and a happy snake's life. And so ended my acquaintance with the little viper.