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| REVIEW STORE: Did you enjoy Su Chang-Wu's short story? Please tell her so. We know she will appreciate your feedback. CLICK HERE to write a review of "The Lion King and the Mouse". NEW REVIEWS: Stories like Su Chang's "The Lion King and the Mouse" are a special pleasure to read. Clean and pure with a thorny message, Sue Chang's works always perform well in a society that is consumed by sex and violence. They are true hallmarks of good writing. Thank you Su Chang! *****__J. M. Humperjohn. It is so delightfully remarkable how Su Chang can take a bedtime story for small children and turn it into a wonderful morality play for adults. As she did with "A Coat of Many Colors" we now have a charming and disarming short story as a teacher of friendship, loyalty, and the conquest of bite over might. Well done Su Chang! *****__ Captain Apple Jack. A sweet and comforting short story. With a moral that is welcome to readers today. Sue Chang never fails to please the palate and cheer up one's spirit. Keep up the good work, Su Chang! ****__ Barbara A. Sabo. We all take for granted that we are able to do whatever we wish without any help, but in the end, our vain could lead to our demise. If we could learn anything from the Lion King, it is that even in the smallest packages, there is someone waiting to help us through the dark moments of our life. ****__Melissa R. Mendelson. |
| ONCE there was a most powerful Line King. He slept when he wished. He ate as he liked. And he drank at his leisure. All the other animals of the jungle gave him a wide path for his pleasures. The Antelope darted helter-skelter at his approach. The Elephants trumpeted his coming, their children to keep safe. And Zebras ran their colors together at the slightest hint of his shadow. On this day, the Lion King was asleep, his pride at his side keeping watch for the fearful hunters. As he slept, a little Mouse began running up and down upon him. This soon wakened the Lion King, who placed his huge paw upon the tiny Mouse and opened his big jaws to swallow him. “Pardon, O King!” cried the little Mouse. “Forgive me this time and I shall never forget it. Who knows but what I may be able to do you a good turn one of these days?” The Lion King was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw to let him go. "Perhaps you may," said the Lion King, "but first you must better understand my powers. Which it is certain that you do not, or you would have never played with me. Climb upon my back and you will soon learn why I am call the Lion King." And so the Lion King called to his first wife and sent her after meat for a fine feast. After a while the Loin King and the Mouse came upon the carcass of a young tender Zebra that the first wife had felled for their dinner. "Do you see my power?" the Lion King asked of the Mouse. "Yes, great King," the little Mouse replied, "your wife has prepared a great feast for you and the others, but they await your fill first." Then the Lion King called to his second wife and sent her to find a place where they could have water. After a while, the lion King and the Mouse came to a small bend in the land where a gentle stream offered its cool and thirst-quenching waters. The lion king drank his fill and said to the Mouse, "Now do you understand my power?" "Yes, great King," the little Mouse answered, "the waters are at your command." Then the Lion King called his pride together high upon a rocky plain where they were to sleep. "Now do you understand my power?" the Lion King roared as he lay down to rest. "Yes, great King," the Mouse said, "it is now a time for rest for you and your family." "Leave us then," the Lion King growled, "and never seek to play with me again!" A wry smile upon his lips at the Mouse's suggestion that he could help one so powerful as the Lion King. And so the little Mouse scampered away so grateful that he never forgot his promise to the Lion King. Some time thereafter, the Lion King was caught in a trap that the fearful hunters had set for him. It was now their plan to soon carry him alive to their King, and so they tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him. The Lion King thrashed at his binds, roared for his wives, and cursed the fearful hunters. All to no avail. His binds only tightened the more he tried to remove them. His wives saw his plight and left to join a new Lion King less stupid than this one. And his curses fell upon deaf ears of the hunters. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight into which the Lion King had fallen, went up to him and soon began to gnaw away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. When he had freed the Lion King, the little Mouse climbed upon his back and whispered with a chuckle in his ear: “Was I not right?” said the little Mouse. ©2009 Su Chang-Wu [All Rights Reserved] |
| “The Lion King and the Mouse” (Adapted From Aesop's Fable) By Su Chang-Wu Monday, January 20, 2009 Rated "G" by the Author. Little Friends May Prove Great Friends. |
