The Lion and the Mouse

Tonight’s story is another Aesop fable. The ancient Greeks told stories like this, about animals who could talk, to pass on bits of wisdom to each other, and they were telling them more than two thousand years ago.

Long ago, in a forest, there lived a very big lion. His mane was golden, his claws were sharp, and his roar carried right over the hill. Every animal in the forest called him king.

One hot afternoon the lion lay asleep in the shade of a tree. He was sound asleep, his tummy rising and falling, and every now and then he snored.

Just then a little mouse came by. The mouse was tiny, scampering along, too busy playing to notice anything. And so he ran right up onto the lion, up and down and back again, over a huge paw and through the shaggy mane.

The lion woke up. He didn’t even need to get up. He just lifted one enormous paw and put it down on top of the mouse. Then he opened his mouth very wide.

The mouse was shaking all over. “Your Majesty, please forgive me this once! I will never forget it. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to help you!”

The lion burst out laughing. A tiny mouse like that, helping the king of the beasts! It struck him as so funny that he laughed until he didn’t feel like eating at all. He lifted his paw and let the mouse go.

The mouse bowed his head to say thank you, and ran off into the grass.

Some time later, hunters came into the forest. They set a trap, and the lion was caught in it. The hunters wanted to take the lion alive to their king. So they tied him tightly to a tree with ropes and went off to find a cart to carry him.

The lion struggled, but the more he struggled, the tighter the ropes became. He roared, and the roar echoed through the whole forest. But no animal dared come near.

Just then, the very same little mouse happened to pass by. He saw the lion tied up and knew him at once. He ran over, climbed up onto the rope and started to gnaw.

A mouse’s teeth are small, but they are very sharp. He gnawed and gnawed, strand by strand. One rope snapped. Then another. Then another. Before long, every rope holding the king of the beasts had been chewed through.

The lion stood up and shook out his mane. He was free.

The little mouse looked up at the great big lion and said, “You see, Your Majesty? Wasn’t I right?”