The Lion and the Mouse
A musical retelling of Aesop's fable about a sleeping lion, a mouse who ran across his paw, and a hunter's net at midnight
A lion slept beneath a tree, His golden mane spread wide. A little mouse ran across his knee And woke him from inside.
He caught her in his giant paw, She trembled there with fear. "Please let me go," was all she said, "I'll help you, that I swear."
The lion laughed a rumbling laugh That shook the afternoon. "You, tiny mouse, could help me? That is quite a tune!"
But something soft inside him stirred, He opened up his paw and said, "Little mouse, off with you."
The days went by, the seasons turned, Until one dark and dreadful night He fell into a hunter's hand.
Thick ropes held him, tight and strong, He roared into the starless sky, But no one came to wake him.
Then through the dark, a tiny sound-- The little mouse had heard his cry. "Be still, dear lion, still," she said, "I promised you, remember?" She chewed the ropes with tiny teeth Through every knotted tether.
A lion's paw. A mouse's teeth. The big one walked off through the grass. The small one watched him go.