9. Rebecca and the Snake

All of this country at first was covered with great forests, except the plains and river-beds. The name “Pennsylvania” means Penn’s Wood. William Penn wanted to name the land on which he settled his colony “Sylvania,” from the Latin word “sylva,” meaning wood, because it was covered with woods. But King Charles II, of England, said, “No, it shall be called ‘Penn’s Wood’—Pennsylvania.” In this great forest William Penn laid out the city of Philadelphia, or “Brotherly Love,” which he wished to make “a fair and green country town, where men might dwell together like brothers.”

Among the very first settlers sent over from England by William Penn was a little girl named Rebecca, who lived in a house that was simply a cave dug in the bank of the river. One day, as she sat at the door of the cave, eating her bowl of milk-porridge, a snake glided up to her, attracted by the odor of the warm porridge, for snakes are very fond of milk. The kind-hearted girl pitied the snake, looking up at her out of its bright eyes, as much as to say, “I’m so hungry.” “I will give thee half of my supper,” she said, and she began to divide her porridge with the snake. But the greedy creature wanted all of it. This Rebecca would not allow. “Nay, nay,” she said, “thou canst have only thy share; keep to thy part.” And although the snake poked its little head again and again into her dish, she made him withdraw it, and justly divided the porridge—a spoonful for the snake and a spoonful for herself—until every drop was gone. Then the snake glided away as silently as he had appeared. The little Quaker girl never saw him again. But she never forgot her strange visitor, and as long as she lived she had pleasure in thinking of the day when she shared her milk-porridge with a hungry snake.