The Lion and the Mouse

When I was a little girl, my daddy used to read to me in the evening. I loved to sit on his lap and hear his bass voice tell the stories from the pages of words I had not yet learned. One of my frequent requests was the Aesop's fables, short, timeless, anthropomorphic stories each with a wise lesson or moral at the end, like this one:

Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down upon him. This soon awakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon the Mouse and opened his big jaws to swallow him. "Pardon, O King," cried the little Mouse. "Forgive me this time, I shall never forget it, and I may be able to do you a favor in the future." The Lion was so taken at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he let him go. Some time after, the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters tied him to a tree. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight of the Lion, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. "Was I not right?" said the little Mouse.

Moral: Little friends may prove great friends.