"I never heard of reason," said the Lion. "Please explain it to me, will
you?"
"It is not easy to explain what reason is," replied the Man; "but if you
like, I will show you how it works."
The Lion was pleased. "Oh please do," he said.
I must tell you that this Man was a woodcutter, and he had an axe upon
his shoulder. He now lifted this axe and drove a blow into a stout
sapling which grew hard by. When he had split the sapling, he took a
wedge of wood, and hammered it in with the back of his axe, until there
was a large cleft in the trunk of the sapling. "Now then," said the Man,
"just put your paw in that hole."
The Lion obediently put his paw into the cleft, and then the Man pulled
out the wedge from the cleft. The sapling closed tight on the paw of the
Lion, and squeezed it. "Now," said the Man, "you know what reason is."
But the Lion no longer cared to hear about reason; all he wanted was to
get his paw out of the cleft. He pulled and he tugged, he roared and he
struggled; but all of no use; he could not by any means get his paw
free. The end of all was, in madness and fury he dashed his head against
the ground, and died.
This was how the Lion learnt how terrible a being
is Man; but unluckily, you see, his knowledge was
of no use to him or any one else, because it cost him
his life. If he had listened to his mother's
teaching, he might be living still, and
you would not be reading
this story.