“You agree to the conditions, then?  The one who conquers shall be King?”

“Oh, certainly,” laughed the Lion, for he expected an easy victory.  “Are you ready?”

“Quite ready.”

“Then—­GO!” roared the Lion.

And with that he sprang forward with open jaws, thinking he could easily swallow a million gnats.  But just as the great jaws were about to close upon the blade of grass whereto the Gnat clung, what should happen but that the Gnat suddenly spread his wings and nimbly flew—­where do you think?—­right into one of the Lion’s nostrils!  And there he began to sting, sting, sting.  The Lion wondered, and thundered, and blundered—­but the Gnat went on stinging; he foamed, and he moaned, and he groaned—­still the Gnat went on stinging; he rubbed his head on the ground in agony, he swirled his tail in furious passion, he roared, he spluttered, he sniffed, he snuffed—­and still the Gnat went on stinging.

“O my poor nose, my nose, my nose!” the Lion began to moan.  “Come down, come DOWN, come DOWN!  My nose, my NOSE, my NOSE!!  You’re King of the Forest, you’re King, you’re King—­only come down.  My nose, my NOSE, my NOSE!”

So at last the Gnat flew out from the Lion’s nostril and went back to his waving grass-blade, while the Lion slunk away into the depths of the forest with his tail between his legs—­beaten, and by a tiny Gnat!

“What a fine fellow am I, to be sure!” exclaimed the Gnat, as he proudly plumed his wings.  “I’ve beaten a lion—­a lion!  Dear me, I ought to have been King long ago, I’m so clever, so big, so strong—­oh!”

The Gnat’s frightened cry was caused by finding himself entangled in some silky sort of threads.  While gloating over his victory, the wind had risen, and his grass-blade had swayed violently to and fro unnoticed by him.  A stronger gust than usual had bent the blade downward close to the ground, and then something caught it and held it fast and with it the victorious Gnat.  Oh, the desperate struggles he made to get free!  Alas! he became more entangled than ever.  You can guess what it was—­a spider’s web, hung out from the overhanging branch of a tree.  Then—­flipperty-flopperty, flipperty-flopperty, flop, flip, flop—­down his stairs came cunning Father Spider and quickly gobbled up the little Gnat for his supper, and that was the end of him.

A strong Lion—­and what overcame him? A Gnat.

A clever Gnat—­and what overcame him? A Spider’s web! He who had beaten the strong lion had been overcome by the subtle snare of a spider’s thread.

ESPECIALLY FOR CLASSES II.  AND III.

THE CAT AND THE PARROT

Once there was a cat, and a parrot.  And they had agreed to ask each other to dinner, turn and turn about:  first the cat should ask the parrot, then the parrot should invite the cat, and so on.  It was the cat’s turn first.