• The Mice and the Elephants

A friend in need is a friend indeed

A long time ago in India, there was an old village that no one lived in anymore. The houses, streets, and shops were empty. The windows were broken, and the stairs had fallen down. This made it a perfect place for mice to live and play. For hundreds of years, the mice made this village their home.

They dug tunnels and made mazes everywhere. The mice had lots of fun, having parties, weddings, and feasts.

One day, a huge group of elephants, thousands of them, walked through the village on their way to a big lake. They were excited about taking a cool swim in the lake. But as they walked, their big feet crushed the tunnels and mazes the mice had built. The mice's home was a mess!

The mice quickly had a meeting. "If the elephants come back this way, our home will be destroyed!" cried one mouse. "We won't stand a chance!" cried another.

The mice decided to do something about it. A brave group of mice followed the elephant footprints to the lake. There, they found the King of the Elephants. Bowing before him, one mouse said, “O King, not far from here is our mice community. It's in the old village you passed through. Do you remember it?”

“Of course, I remember it,” said the Elephant King. “We elephants never forget. But we didn't know mice lived there.”

“How could you?” said the mouse. “But your herd crushed many of our homes. If you come back the same way, that would be the end of us! Please, won't you find another way to go home? Maybe someday we can help you too.”

The Elephant King smiled. He thought it was funny that tiny mice could ever help elephants. But he felt sorry for crushing their village. He said, “Don’t worry. I will lead the herd home another way.”

Nearby, a King ordered his hunters to trap elephants. They knew the elephants liked to swim in the lake, so they made a trap in the water. When the Elephant King and his herd jumped in, they were caught in the trap.

Two days later, the hunters pulled the elephants out of the lake with ropes and tied them to big trees in the forest. The elephants were stuck. The Elephant King tried to think of a way to escape.

One elephant was free because she didn't jump in the lake. The Elephant King called to her. He told her to go back to the old village and bring the mice to help.

When the mice heard about the elephants' trouble, they rushed to the lake. They saw the King and his herd tied up and started chewing on the ropes as fast as they could. Soon, the ropes were chewed through, and the elephants were free.

The elephants found a new way home, and the mice lived happily for many years to come.

Source of photos: 1