ONE day an Opossum who had gone to sleep hanging from the highest
branch of a tree by the tail, awoke and saw a large Snake wound
about the limb, between him and the trunk of the tree.
"If I hold on," he said to himself, "I shall be swallowed; if I let
go I shall break my neck."
But suddenly he bethought himself to dissemble.
"My perfected friend," he said, "my parental1 instinct recognises in
you a noble evidence and illustration of the theory of development.
You are the Opossum of the Future, the ultimate Fittest Survivor2 of
our species, the ripe result of progressive prehensility3 - all
tail!"
But the Snake, proud of his ancient eminence4 in Scriptural history,
was strictly5 orthodox, and did not accept the scientific view.
