“Indeed, Father Lion,” he said, “we meant to come before; we knew we ought to come before; and we wanted to come before; but every time we started to come, a dreadful great lion came out of the woods and roared at us, and frightened us so that we ran away.”

“What do you mean?” roared the Lion.  “There’s no other lion in this jungle, and you know it!”

“Indeed, indeed, Father Lion,” said the little Jackal, “I know that is what everybody thinks; but indeed and indeed there is another lion!  And he is as much bigger than you as you are bigger than I!  His face is much more terrible, and his roar far, far more dreadful.  Oh, he is far more fearful than you!”

At that the Lion stood up and roared so that the jungle shook.

“Take me to this lion,” he said; “I’ll eat him up and then I’ll eat you up.”

The little Jackals danced on ahead, and the Lion stalked behind.  They led him to a place where there was a round, deep well of clear water.  They went round on one side of it, and the Lion stalked up to the other.

“He lives down there, Father Lion!” said the little Jackal.  “He lives down there!”

The Lion came close and looked down into the water,—­and a lion’s face looked back at him out of the water!

When he saw that, the Lion roared and shook his mane and showed his teeth.  And the lion in the water shook his mane and showed his teeth.  The Lion above shook his mane again and growled again, and made a terrible face.  But the lion in the water made just as terrible a one, back.  The Lion above couldn’t stand that.  He leaped down into the well after the other lion.

But, of course, as you know very well, there wasn’t any other lion!  It was only the reflection in the water!

So the poor old Lion floundered about and floundered about, and as he couldn’t get up the steep sides of the well, he was drowned dead.  And when he was drowned the little Jackals took hold of hands and danced round the well, and sang,—­

“The Lion is dead!  The Lion is dead!

“We have killed the great Lion who would have killed us!

“The Lion is dead!  The Lion is dead!

“Ao!  Ao!  Ao!”

THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE CITY MOUSE[1]

[1] The following story of the two mice, with the similar fables of The Boy who cried Wolf, The Frog King, and The Sun and the Wind, are given here with the hope that they may be of use to the many teachers who find the over-familiar material of the fables difficult to adapt, and who are yet aware of the great usefulness of the stories to young minds.  A certain degree of vividness and amplitude must be added to the compact statement of the famous collections, and yet it is not wise to change the style-effect of a fable, wholly.  I venture to give these versions, not as perfect models, surely, but as renderings which have been acceptable to children, and which I believe retain the original point simply and strongly.