There was once a mouse who thought a great deal of himself and was
always longing for a chance to do something which would show how great
he was.
One night while he was asleep in a corner of the kasga, under the shelf,
he was startled by a strange noise and woke up with a jump. He looked
about him, but could see nothing; then he crept very quietly toward the
door, and there he saw a great fire burning.
“Now I am going to be burned up,” said the mouse. “What shall I do to
save myself?”
The fire was growing bigger and brighter every minute, and in despair he
gave up all hope of getting out of the door, for he could never pass
through those terrible flames. He sat down and began to think and think
what he had better do.
“Well,” he thought, “I will burn up if I stay in here, so I might as
well try to get out. If the fire burns me while I am getting out, I
can’t help it.”
Then he made a dash through the flames to the door.
He was soon out, but he was much surprised that he did not feel burned
at all. He looked himself over very carefully but his fur was not even
singed.
“Now I know that I am very great indeed, because fire does not burn me,”
said the mouse, and he walked about proudly whisking his little tail and
thinking how great he was; then he looked back at the kasga, and saw
that there was really no fire at all. What he had taken for fire was
just the sunshine at the door. The proud mouse felt very much ashamed
and said, “What a poor fool I am! What can I do now to show that I am
really great?”
He looked about for a long time. At last he said, “I know what I shall
do. I shall jump over that high bank.”
So he started to walk to the bank, and when he got there, he looked up,
and it seemed very high indeed.
“If I jump over this bank,” said he, “I shall be great.”
He ran, and then sprang as high as he could into the air, and came down
on top of the bank.
“Surely I am great now, since I can jump so high.” When he looked back
he saw that the bank was not high at all, only a little heap of sand.
“Shame on me!” groaned the mouse. “Now I must do something this time. I
shall swim across that great lake.”
He started for the lake and at last, after walking a long time, he got
there.
“That lake is very big,” he thought, for he could see only part way
across.
Then the little mouse began to feel proud once more.
“If I swim across that lake, all the animals will call me great.”
He swam, and he swam, and it took him all day to swim over. Before he
reached the other side, he was so tired he could only swim very slowly.
Looking back, he saw all kinds of fishes on his tail. He shook them off,
and at last he reached land.
“Now,” thought he, “I am really great, for I swam across that lake;” and
he lay down for a good rest. When he got up he looked proudly back to
see the wonderful lake, and there was no lake at all. What he had
thought was a big lake was only a man’s footprint full of muddy water,
that he had taken all day to cross, and the fishes he had seen on his
tail were the little bugs swimming about in the mud-puddle.
“Now, I am surely ashamed of myself!” he cried. But he would not give up
trying to be great, though he was beginning to see that he was really
not as great as he supposed.
Far on the horizon, he saw something tall and slender.
“I must go cut down that pole that reaches from earth to sky,” said he,
and off he started for the pole. When he reached it he walked all around
the pole, looking up, but he could not see the top.
“That high pole holds up the sky,” thought he, “and if I cut it, the sky
will fall down upon the earth, and everybody will be killed. I will cut
that pole because I am ashamed of myself.”
First he dug a hole in the ground, to get into when the pole was cut.
When the hole was finished he said, “I will do like this when the sky
falls down,” and he ran as fast as he could into the hole. He came out
then and started to cut the pole with his sharp little teeth.
He worked very hard, until at last the pole was cut, when he ran into
the hole as fast as he could scamper, to listen for the falling of the
pole.
Said the mouse to himself, “Now the sky has come down and killed every
living thing.”
Pretty soon he began to wonder how it would look with the sky fallen
down, and he peeped out of his hole; but everything seemed to be the
same as before. He looked up where the sky used to be, and there it
still was, all blue and shining. Then he looked down at the pole on the
ground, and saw that it was only a tall blade of grass.
“Shame on me, shame on me! Now I am truly ashamed of myself. Because I
am so ashamed of myself, I will pack that great mountain across the
tundra.” So he journeyed to the mountain, and at last he got there.
First he dug all around with his little claws, then he lifted one grain
of sand and packed it over the tundra. Back and forth he went for many
weary days, carrying a grain of sand at a time, until he had carried the
whole mountain across.
“Now,” said the little mouse, no longer proud, “I know that no one can
be great unless he is willing to work hard and patiently.”
So that is the way the mountain got there, far out over the tundra, and
the little mouse was rewarded at last for his perseverance.