The Lion and the Mouse

A Lion, tired with the chase, lay sleeping at full length under a shady
tree. Some Mice, scrambling over him while he slept, awoke him.
Laying his paw upon one of them, he was about to crush him, but the
Mouse implored his mercy in such moving terms that he let him go.

Now it happened that sometime afterward the Lion was caught in a net
laid by some hunters, and, unable to free himself, made the forest
resound with his roars. The Mouse, recognizing the voice of his
preserver, ran to the spot, and with his little sharp teeth gnawed the
ropes asunder and set the Lion free.



The Swallow and Other Birds

A Swallow, observing a Husbandman employed in sowing hemp, called the
little Birds together and informed them of what the farmer was about.
He told them that hemp was the material from which the nets, so fatal
to the feathered race, were composed; and advised them to join
unanimously in picking it up in order to prevent the consequences.

The Birds, either disbelieving his information or neglecting his
advice, gave themselves no trouble about the matter. In a little time
the hemp appeared above the ground, when the friendly Swallow again
addressed himself to them, and told them it was not yet too late,