208. Mus et Leo. Circum leonem dormientem lascive discurrebant musculi, quorum unus in dorsum eius insiluit. Captus autem a leone experrecto excusavit imprudentiam gratiasque se ei habiturum esse pollicitus est, si vitae parceret. Leo, etsi erat ira commotus, ignovit tamen musculo precanti, et tam contemptam bestiolam dimisit incolumem. Paulo post, incautius praedam vestigans leo in laqueos incidit, quibus adstrictus rugitum maximum edidit. Accurrit musculus, cernensque vinculis detentum qui sibi dudum vitam petenti concesserat, arrepsit ad laqueos eosque corrosit. Hoc modo cum leonem periculo liberasset, “Tibi,” inquit, “ludibrio eram, quasi nullum vicissim beneficium praestare possem; nunc scias etiam murem gratias referre posse.”
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SLIDESHOW of all the Crane images. I really like the way that Crane has combined here the traditional Aesopic fable of the lion and the mouse along with the variation (found first in Abstemius, I believe) where the mouse wants to marry the lioness!
M0208 = Perry150. Source: Yenni 19. This is Perry 150. To find out what the mouse asked for after freeing the lion from the net, see #209. For a completely different kind of ending, see what happened when the mouse helped an eagle, #412. For another story about animal gratitude, see the fable of the ant and the dove, #646.
