The Lion and the Mouse ~ a CHARMed Aesop's Fable

Once upon a time, a Lion was taking his daily 23 hour nap. 

A small Mouse, figuring the Lion was out for the rest of the day and possible acting on a bet made by the other mice, began to run up and down the length of the Lion.

Contrary to what the mice were thinking, this woke the Lion, who was none too pleased.  He smacked his large paw upon the Mouse and opened his jaws, ready to consume the Mouse as an hors d'oeuvre.

The Mouse thought fast, and spoke up.  "Pardon, O great wise and wonderful King," he said.  "Please forgive my intrusion this one time, and I shall never forget your kindness.  And who knows?  Perhaps, one day, I will be able to do a life-saving favor for you!"

The Lion thought that highly unlikely.  But he also thought that a Mouse, straight up, didn't make much of a snack.  And he was amused at the idea that a scrawny Mouse would one day we able to help him.  Having thought these deep thoughts, the Lion lifted his paw, releasing the Mouse, who scampered back to his friends.

Not a week had passed, however, before the Lion, during his daily one-hour hunt, found himself caught in a trap.  The hunters who caught him, determined to carry a live lion back to their King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon for their triumphant march home. 

Try as he might, the Lion could not get free, and was sure his hours were numbered.  Just then, who should appear but the little Mouse.  When he saw the dire situation of the Lion, he leaped onto the trap and began to gnaw at the ropes. He gnawed and gnawed and gnawed until he had freed the King of Beasts.

The Lion was overcome with gratitude.  The Mouse merely shrugged.  "Told you so," he said.

Moral: Little friends may prove great friends.

Secondary moral: Mice make unpleasant hors d'oeuvres.

The Lion and the Mouse can be found here.

Imagining

By Shel Silverstein

You’re only just imagining

A mouse is in your hair.

You’ve got to stop imagining

That mice are everywhere.

I think you’re just imagining

To give yourself a scare,

But trust me dear, I wouldn’t lie:

There is no mouse up there.

There are, however, mice here.

Three Nine Mice

Nine Mice


by Jack Prelutsky

Nine Mice on tiny tricycles

went riding on the ice,


they rode in spite of warning signs,


they rode despite advice
 The signs were right, 

the ice was thin,


in half a trice, 

the mice fell in,


and from their chin down to their toes

those mice entirely froze.



Nine mindless mice, who paid the price,


are thawing slowly by the ice


still sitting on their tricycles
...

nine white and shiny micicles

Micicles without icicles... Quite niceicles!

Not-So-Invisible Mouse

INVISIBLE BOY
And here we see the invisible boy
In his lovely invisible house,
Feeding a piece of invisible cheese
To a little invisible mouse.

Oh, what a beautiful picture to see!
Will you draw an invisible picture for me?"
~ Shel Silverstein

Here are some not-so-invisible mice. 

The Tale of Magpie Mouse

There was once a family of mice.  The oldest was Terence, who was very practical, and always looking for a better home for the mouse family.



Next came Clarence, who was always on the lookout for a tasty morsel or two or three.



Then there was Larry, who was a great planner.



And finally there was Magpie Mouse, also known as Maggie.



All summer long the mice prepared for the long winter ahead.  Terence was hoping to find a better location in a better neighborhood.  They had been living in a tennis ball all summer and frankly, it was beginning to smell.



So when Terence found a discarded loaf of bread, he was ecstatic and wasted no time shaping it into a new abode...



...which was, actually, quite spacious inside after Larry did some work on it.



Clarence harvested far and wide.  He gathered berries.



He collected seeds.



One day he brought home a soda can with plenty of water inside.



He even found a tiny wedge of cheese.



Larry checked all the items off on his Winter Preparedness list.  While everyone else was finding food and water and shelter, Maggie was busy, too.  Every day she collected.  She didn't bring food or bedding or a shelter.  But every day Maggie brought home a new treasure.

Soon the winds began to howl and the nights grew cold.  Snow fell and no longer could Clarence find morsels of food.  But they mice had plenty to eat.  Though it was cold, they were snug in their house.  And because Larry has carefully collected furnishings, they were comfortable.  But they weren't very happy.  They missed the sparkle of sunlight on the water.  They missed rainbows and sunbeams and drops of dew.  They began to wonder if they would ever see the beautifully sparkling world again.

That's when Maggie got busy.  She went into her private corner of the bread house and started to bring out her treasures: a bit of glass, a tiny heart of hematite, a crystal, some porcelain.  Her glass sparkled, the color of the sky.  Her crystals twinkled like dew on the morning grass.  Her stones were like the pebbles in a pond.




And finally Clarence and Terence and Larry understood that there was more to life than seeds and crumbs and a soft place to sleep.  There were also sparkly things to make every day brighter.



Their story, their bracelet.

Cinderella... From the Perspective of the Mice

For far too long, the story of Cinderella has been told from the Fairy Godmother's point of view. She rescues Cinderella.  She creates a carriage from a pumpkin.  She waves her magic wand.  The mice have had enough.  "She's nothing!" they insist.  Here, then is their Cinderella story.



Long ago a poor widower with a beautiful daughter remarried.  The woman he married was evil and vain, and had two daughters who were just as evil and vain.  Because the widower was clueless about things that happened beneath his roof, his new wife and his step-daughters treated his daughter like dirt or, more accurately, cinders.  She slept in the cinders and they called her Cinderella.



There were a number of mice who lived by the fireplace because it was warm there, and Cinderella would bring them food and water and the leftover drops in the wine bottle.



All day Cinderella would sweep and scrub and cook and de-clutter, and all day long the mice would help her.  Cinderella was even learning to speak Mousese, which is a variant of the Ratese language.  "There's got to be a better life for all of us," the Mice agreed, and they set about finding one.  One day, while reading the newspaper, one of the Mice spotted an announcement: a local prince was throwing a gala ball, and there, he hoped to meet the woman of his dreams and make her his wife.  The mice set to work forging an invitation to the ball, and when it was finished, they laid it at the front door... where it was promptly snatched up by the evil stepsisters and the wicked stepmother.  They began to plan what to wear and what to say and what to do, and they put Cinderella to work sewing magnificent dresses for them.

When Cinderella asked if she could go to the ball, too, they just laughed and gave her more and dirtier work to do.  So Cinderella and the Mice slaved day in and day out preparing the stepsisters for the ball.

But mice do not give up easily, which is something you surely know if you ever had them invade your cupboard.  Each night, while Cinderella slept, they sewed and stitched and hemmed and embroidered, making a beautiful gown.  Then the Forger Mouse slipped out and made a deal with Vinnie the Raccoon, and scored a pair of glass slippers.  (Vinnie didn't have any real slippers.  It was the best he could do.)



(Truth be told it wasn't really glass but Vinnie was a Raccoon and didn't know any better.)



That night, after Cinderella dressed her stepsisters for the ball and did their hair and did their make-up, she sent them on her way and sat down by the fireplace for a good cry, or a good book.  Whichever came first.

But the Mice had other ideas.  They produced the dress and the slippers (of questionable material) and dressed Cinderella. 



The Mice did her hair and make-up.  Cinderella was wondering how she was going to walk to the ball in those shoes, but Forger Mouse, after his time with Vinnie, had been carving a pumpkin into a carriage.  Then the Mice harnessed themselves to the carriage and prepared to pull Cinderella to the ball.



It was a difficult journey, but they made it at last.  While the Mice threw themselves into the fountain to cool off, Cinderella admired the beautiful palace and in she went.



Everyone noticed her at once.  She was, after all, quite beautiful, and no one had ever seen shoes like hers before.  The Prince spotted her, as well, and asked her to dance.

Fortunately the Mice had given her dancing lessons, though usually Cinderella got to lead, which was a little awkward with the Prince.  But eventually they found their rhythm and danced all night.  When it was almost midnight, Cinderella's feet began to hurt terribly.  And the pumpkin, which had been out in the sun a few days too many, was starting to rot.  So one of the Mice scampered in and whispered in Cinderella's ear: Time to go, Missy!

Cinderella gave the Prince a hurried look and raced out the door, as fast as she could.  But that wasn't very fast, so she kicked off one of the slippers and hopped on her bare foot until she reached the carriage, and home they went.

By the time the step sisters returned, Cinderella was looking cindery as always, mending their panties by the fire.

The Prince, meanwhile, was devastated.  The woman of his dreams had slipped, or hopped away, and the only clue he had was a rather unusual shoe.  He was determined to find the fair maiden and set out into the kingdom, shoe in hand, to find the foot that fit the slipper.

When he came to Cinderella's house, the stepsisters were eager to try the shoe.  It did not fit, and the Prince was about to leave when one of the Mice tripped him and sent him sprawling.  Cinderella leapt out from behind the washing tub to assist him. 

The Prince asked her to try on the slipper.  Cinderella wasn't too happy at the prospect of putting on that shoe again, but sometimes we must do difficult and painful things to achieve a greater goal.  So she put the slipper on her foot.  And it fit as perfectly as was possible on a woman whose feet were not exactly Barbie's.



Thrilled, the Prince dropped to one knee and asked for Cinderella's hand in marriage.  Cinderella agreed, as long as the Mice could come along.  And so they were married, and Cinderella never wore horribly uncomfortable shoes again.  As for her stepsisters?  They had to wear uncomfortable shoes every day for the rest of their lives.  The Mice saw to that.



Their story, on a bracelet.