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Bruce Yarrow

            Jonas was a famous Australian explorer.  He was famous because he was the best at capturing animals - he never came back empty handed.  Zoos from all around hired him to capture various animals in the Australian wilderness.  Everybody thought highly of Jonas and he was treated with great respect.  The only problem was the he had a horrible attitude.  All the respect he got from the folks at the zoo gave him more than enough confidence. 

Jonas always traveled with his long time friend Eli.  Eli thought of himself as an equal partner in their travels and explorations, but through Jonas’s eyes Eli was his sidekick.  Eli was a laid-back kind of guy and didn’t mind that Jonas took all the credit for their findings.  Eli was content with the respect without the fame. 

For the last few trips, Jonas decided he could work better without having to carry any gear or listen to the zoo folk’s recommendations.  This time the two of them were hired to capture rattlesnakes.  The zoo folks’ told the pair where they could find the snakes and said that they should bring an antidote in case they were bitten in the process.  However, in true Jonas style, the overly confident explorer took charge of the pair and ditched the antidote to lighten the load. 

After they left the zoo Jonas lead the team in a direction away from the recommended path.  He was taking Eli to the dreaded “snake pit.”  The crater was known to all explorers and travelers as “snake pit” because of the mass congregation of various kinds of snakes.  Eli argued that it would be a lot easier to follow the recommended path to a single rattlesnake nest in order to capture a snake.  Jonas would have none of it repeating that there was more glory in doing it his way. 

When they got to the pit it was swarming with snakes.  Jonas sighted a rattlesnake, quickly snatched it, and bagged it with expert skill.  Moments later Eli noticed a cut on Jonas’s arm.  Eli told him he had been bitten in his efforts, but again Jonas would not listen to Eli.  Eli searched their bags for the antidote, but alas Jonas had decided to leave it behind in his blind confidence. 

Eli tried to hurry their way back to the zoo to get the antidote.  About half the way there, Jonas complained that he was feeling sickly.  The pair had to stop for a rest.  Eli was thinking the worst and tried convincing Jonas of his terminal ailment.  Eli raced back to the zoo to fetch the antidote and came back with as much haste as he could muster for his friend.  He came back to a badly poisoned Jonas who was too far gone for the antidote to cure him. 

 “I was thinking while you were gone and I realized that you were the best friend to me and that I have been horrible to you – and everybody ever since we got a name for ourselves.  I got cocky and you tried to warn me. I should have listened, but I didn’t and look at me now.  Eli you were always the brains behind this operation.  Here, take the rattlesnake, finish the job,” were Jonas’s last words.  With that Jonas tipped his hat to his good friend Eli and he was dead.