A short story by Ambrose Bierce The Christian Serpent

Title: The Christian Serpent

Author: Ambrose Bierce [More Titles by Bierce]

A Rattlesnake came home to his brood and said: "My children, gather about and receive your father's last blessing, and see how a Christian dies."

"What ails you, Father?" asked the Small Snakes.

"I have been bitten by the editor of a partisan journal," was the reply, accompanied by the ominous death-rattle.