A mouse woke up the big lion. As the lion was about to eat him, the mouse protested: “Please forgive me and let me go, and I may some day help you.”
The lion agreed to this, although he laughed at the idea that a little mouse could help him.
Now one day the lion was caught in a hunter’s net, from which he could not free himself. The mouse climbed into the trap and gnawed away the rope with his sharp teeth, thus allowing the lion to escape.
The mouse then said, “As you helped me, so I also helped you.”
(The illustration is from the Caldicott Award-winning book by Jerry Pinkney.)
