The Dinner Party

I love to read.  Consequently, some of my favorite classes in High School and College were literature courses. I can't say my favorite stories  Shakespeare, though.   His plays made me work too hard.  Nor did I particularly enjoy Chaucer or Steinbeck or any of the other famous authors we had to study.   I preferred  simple stories with happy endings.  Still, every story I read put new ideas into my brain, and I learned to think.

One of my favorite stories, which I still reflect on from time to time, was a simple story by Mona Gardner called The Dinner Party.  It took place one evening at a dinner party given by an English colonel and his wife in colonial India.

During the dinner a discussion began about who was braver, men or women.  The colonel was explaining that that while women were certainly very brave, they didn't have as much nerve control as men.  "Even though a man may feel like screaming, he controls that impulse, and that courage is what counts."

While the discussion continued an American scientist noticed a startled look cross their hostess' face.  Then he saw her whisper to the native servant standing behind her.  The servant quickly left the room, returning with a bowl of milk that he sat down on the veranda, just outside the dining room door.

The scientist was worried.  A bowl of milk in India meant just one thing; snake bait.  He realized that there must be a cobra somewhere in the room.  Looking all around, the scientist couldn't see a snake anywhere, so he figured it must be underneath the dining room table.  His first impulse was to warn the other dinner guests, but he knew if he did some of them would jump up and someone would get bit, so instead he came up with a way to keep them safe.

"I propose a little experiment," he quickly suggested.  "I'm going to count to 300, and lets see who of us has enough control to sit perfectly still without moving that long."

So the scientist began to count.  He had reached 280 before, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the snake emerge from under the table and slither out the door, the native servant slamming the door behind him.

Some of the dinner guests screamed, and everyone shivered, but the colonel quickly used their experience to prove his point.

"See," he proudly announced.  "Our friend here, the scientist, has shown exactly what I was talking about.  He knew the snake was under the table, but he had enough self control to master his instincts and protect all of us."

The scientist wasn't so sure that proved him to be the bravest.  Turning to the colonel's wife, he asked, "How did you know the snake was under the table?"

Smiling faintly she replied, "Because it was lying across my foot."