Noah lets all the animals off the ark and tells them,
“Go forth, and multiply.”
A year later, he goes around to all the animals to see how they’re doing.
The horses have foals, the wolves have pups, the lions have cubs…everything looks good.
But then he gets to a couple of snakes, and they have no eggs, no hatchlings, nothing.
Noah is confused, and the snakes admit that they’ve had some trouble.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asks.
The snakes look at each other and then turn back to Noah.
“If you could cut down that tree over there,” says one,
“that would help quite a bit.”
Noah doesn’t quite understand, but cuts down the tree anyway, and leaves to continue his journey.
A year later, he goes to check the progress of all the animals.
They are more foals, more pups, more cubs, and tons of other baby animals.
He gets to the snakes, and sure enough, there are baby snakes everywhere.
Confused, Noah goes to one of the original snakes and asks how cutting down the tree helped.
“We’re adders,” said the snake.