A RAT, traveling on the highway, met a huge Elephant, bearing his royal
master and the master’s favorite dog, cat, parrot, and monkey. Behind
them came a retinue of servants and many courtiers.
An admiring crowd followed the great beast and his attendants, so that
the entire road was filled.
“How foolish you are,” said the Rat to the people, “to make such a fuss
at seeing an elephant. Is it his great bulk that you so much admire?
Mere size is nothing. At most it can only frighten little girls and
boys, and I can do that as well. I am a beast as well as he. I have as
many legs, and ears, and eyes. If you will take the trouble to compare
us, you will see that I have finer parts. What right, then, has he to
take up all the highway, which belongs to me as well as to him?”
At this moment, the Cat from her high place spied the Rat. She jumped
to the ground and soon convinced him that he was not an Elephant.