The Mice and the Elephants

THE MICE AND THE ELEPHANTS A long time ago there was an old, deserted village in India. All the houses, streets and shops were empty. Windows, doors, and stairs were broken or completely gone. This made the village the perfect place for mice to run around and make their homes. In fact, the mice had been happily living in the old, deserted village for hundreds of years. Mice had been there before people came and they stayed after the people left the village. Now was the best time yet for the mice. They made tunnels all through those fine old homes and buildings, forming great mazes underground. What good times the mice had with their parties, festivals, weddings, and feasts. Time past with no changes in the mice’s lives. Until one day, a herd of elephants, numbering in the thousands, stomped through the village on their way to a big lake to the west. The elephants were only thinking how wonderful it would be to swim in the lake and cool down. They did not know (and how would they know) that as they marched through the village with those big elephant feet that they were destroying the mazes and tunnels the mice had made. What a mess the elephants left behind! The mice quickly held a meeting. If the elephant herd comes back this way again our community will be doomed cried one mouse. We will not stand a chance said another mouse. There was only one thing to do! A group of brave mice followed the elephant footprints all the way to the lake. There they found the King of the Elephants. Bowing before him, one of the mice spoke and said “O king, not far from here is our mouse community. It is in the deserted village that you just passed through. Do you remember it? Of course, I remember the village, said the elephant king, but we did not know that there was a mouse community located there. How could you know? said the mouse. But your herd of elephants stamped out many of the homes where we have lived for hundreds of years. If you come back through the village when you leave the lake, it will be the end of our mouse community. We are small and you are so big, but we ask you please to find another way to go home. Who knows maybe one day we mice can help you and pay back your kindness. The elephant king smiled. Imagine…..how could tiny mice ever help an elephant? But the king felt truly bad that he and his herd had crushed the mouse community. There is no need for you to worry he said. I will lead the herd home another way. The mice thanked him and returned to their community. Nearby, a king ordered his hunters to trap as many elephants as they could find. The hunters knew that the elephants came from near and far to swim in the lake. So, they set a trap in the water. When the elephant king and his herd jumped into the lake they were caught in the trap. A couple of days later the hunters returned and dragged the elephant king and his herd out of the water with large heavy ropes and tied the elephants to the big trees in the forest. When the hunters left, the elephant king tried to think, what could they do? All the elephants were tied to the large trees except for one. That one had not jumped into the lake and hid in the forest when the hunters came back. The elephant king called to her. He told her that she must go to the old, deserted village and bring back the mice that lived there. When the mice heard the news about the elephant king and his herd they raced to the forest. When the mice got to the forest, they saw all the elephants tied to the trees. The mice raced up the ropes and started chewing on the ropes. They chewed and chewed as quickly as they could. Soon all the ropes were chewed through, and the mice were able to set all the elephants free. The grateful elephant king and his herd found a new way home and the mouse community lived on the in the deserted village for many more years. The End