【英】《伊索寓言》第5集：The Lion and the Mouse

In the grasslands where they live, the stately lion is the king of all the animals. One day, a lion lay resting in the shade after a huge lunch. While he slept, a small mouse raced by with a mouthful of grain for her family. The lion reached out a huge paw and trapped the mouse.

He picked the mouse up in his paw and looked it over, trying to decide if it would be a tasty dessert. The trembling mouse cried out, “Forgive me for disturbing you. Please, do not eat me.”

“And why not?” the lion asked in his deep, rumbling voice.

“If you will let me go home to my children, I promise to do you a great deed some day.”

The very idea of a tiny mouse doing a great deed for the king of beasts made the lion laugh. He laughed so loud and so long that he dropped the mouse back into the dust. The mouse scurried away while the lion laughed.

Some days later, the lion was dashing after an antelope when he set off a trap. It scooped him up in a thick rope net. The lion roared and struggled, but he could not get out of the net.

Nearby, the mouse heard the lion’s roars. Though she was afraid, she rushed up the rope that held the net and called out, “I’ll have you free in a moment, Oh King!” Then she set to gnawing on the thick rope.

She chewed as fast as she could, even when her jaws began to hurt. Finally the rope was so thin, it snapped under the lion’s weight. He tumbled to the ground in the net. There he was able to shake himself free.

He looked up at the brave little mouse and bowed. “You were right,” the lion said. “Little friends can be great friends.”