In the heat of the day a lion lay asleep at the edge of a wood. He lay so still that a mouse ran right across his nose without knowing it was a nose, and a lion’s at that.
Bang! The lion clapped his paw to his face and felt something caught. It was furry. Lazily he opened his eyes. He lifted up one side of his huge paw just a little bit to see what was under it and was amused to find a mouse.
"That’s very funny," said the lion, and he laughed. "How can a little thing like you help me, the great king of beasts?"
“太有意思了!”狮子说,然后笑了起来:“一只小小的老鼠如何帮我,这个野兽之王呢?”
"I don’t know," the mouse replied. "But a little creature can sometimes help a big one."
“我不知道,”老鼠回答:“但是,小动物有时候能够帮上大动物。”
"Well, you have made me laugh," the lion said, "which is something I seldom do. And anyway, you would hardly make half amouthful. So…" He raised his paw and let the mouse go.
A few days later the lion was caught in a hunter’s net. The woods rang with his angry roaring and the little mouse heard him.
几天后,狮子被猎人的网套住了。树林里响起了他愤怒的咆哮,老鼠听见了。
"That is my kind lion!" she cried. "He is in trouble!" As fast as she could, she ran toward the spot from which the roaring came, and there he was. The lion was thrashing around so in the net that the mouse didn’t dare to come near for fear of being crushed.