An Ox came down to a reedy pool to drink. As he splashed
heavily into the water, he crushed a young Frog into the mud.
The old Frog soon missed the little one and asked his
brothers and sisters what had become of him.
A "great big monster," said one of them, "stepped on
little brother with one of his huge feet!"
"Big, was he!" said the old Frog, puffing herself up.
"Was he as big as this?"
"Oh, much bigger!" they cried.
The Frog puffed up still more.
"He could not have been bigger than this," she said.
But the little Frogs all declared that the monster was much, much
bigger and the old Frog kept puffing herself out more and more until,
all at once, she burst.
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.
Two Goats, frisking gayly on the rocky steeps of a
mountain valley, chanced to meet, one on each side of a deep chasm
through which poured a mighty mountain torrent. The trunk of a fallen
tree formed the only means of crossing the chasm, and on this not even
two squirrels could have passed each other in safety. The narrow path
would have made the bravest tremble. Not so our Goats. Their pride
would not permit either to stand aside for the other.
One set her foot on the log. The other did likewise. In
the middle they met horn to horn. Neither would give way, and so they
both fell, to be swept away by the roaring torrent below.
It is better to yield than to come to misfortune through
stubbornness.
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Made by Jordan ROTKOPF, student at EMLyon BS