A lion, with the heat oppress'd,
One day composed himself to rest;
But whilst he dozed, as he intended,
A mouse his royal back ascended;
Nor thought of harm as Esop tells,
Mistaking him for something else,
And travelled over him, and round him,
And might have left him as he found him,
Had he not, tremble when you hear,
Tried to explore the monarch's ear!
Who straightway woke with wrath immense,
And shook his head to cast him thence.
"You rascal, what are you about,"
Said he, when he had turned him out.
"I'll teach you soon," the lion said,
"To make a mouse-hole in my head!"
So saying, he prepared his foot,
To crush the trembling tiny brute;
But he, the mouse, with tearful eye,
Implored the lion's clemency,
Who thought it best at least to give
His little pris'ner a reprieve.
'Twas nearly twelve months after this,
The lion chanced his way to miss;
When pressing forward: heedless yet,
He got entangled in a net.
With dreadful rage he stamp'd and tore,
And straight commenced a lordly roar;
When the poor mouse who heard the noise,
Attended, for she knew his voice.
Then what the lion's utmost strength
Could not effect, she did at length:
With patient labor she applied
Her teeth, the net-work to divide;
And so at last forth issued he,
A _lion_, by a mouse set free.