THE LION AND THE MOUSE
from The Aesop for Children (1919)
A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.
"Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you."
The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.
Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.
"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion."
A kindness is never wasted.
THE LION AND THE MOUSE
from Aesop and Hyssop (1912)
by William Ellery Leonard
[A fable adapted from Aesop]
A Lion, dreaming in his pride of place,
Was waked by Mouse who ran across his face.
Rising in wrath he caught and was about
To claw and kill, when little Mouse cried out:
"O spare my life and I'll repay you well."
The Lion laughed and loosed him. . . . .
It befell
A little later that some hunters bound
This king of beasts with ropes upon the ground;
When Mouse, who knew him by his roar, in glee
Came up and gnawed the ropes and set him free.
Scorn no man's friendship, howso small he be.
The Lion and the Mouse,
a painting by Peter Paul Rubens
and Frans Snyders
(To read about this painting,
click here.)
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