Pratt: The Lion and the Mouse.

A lion lay fast asleep. When he awoke, he was hungry. Just then a little mouse moved in the grass near the lion's paw. In a second the lion had him fast. "O pity me!" cried the little mouse. "I am such a little animal. Pray do not eat me. Let me go. Some day I may be able to save your life." "You save my life!' laughed the lion. "What could a little thing like you do for a great lion like me? However, I will let you go. You would be only a mouthful anyway. And I am hungry enough to eat a thousand mice like you." Away went the little mouse, happy indeed to have escaped. A few days later, the lion again was asleep. Up crept some hunters; and before the lion could awake and get upon his feet, the hunters had bound him with a tight rope. "Now," said the hunters, "we will go and get our guns and shoot the lion." The lion growled and roared and kicked; but it did no good. "Just keep still, old friend," said the little mouse; "I will free you before the hunters can come back." "You! Free me!" roared the lion. The little mouse said nothing; but began to gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, upon the rope with his sharp little teeth. In a few minutes the lion was free; and when the hunters came back they found nothing but a broken rope and a little mouse nibbling at the grass.

Source: Mara Pratt's Aesop 24.

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