ONCE UPON a time
there was a mousedeer. One day,
Mousedeer went for a walk along the bank of a river. He saw Crocodile in the water and said to
him, "Good morning, Mr. Crocodile.
I hope you are well this morning."
Mr. Crocodile snapped at
Mousedeer. Luckily, Mousedeer was not
near him.
"It would be a good morning if I
could catch you and have you for my breakfast," said Crocodile.
Mousedeer laughed, "My dear
Friend, you are too weak to catch me; you do not know how strong I am."
Crocodile looked at little Mousedeer
and laughed loudly. Mousedeer said,
"Do not laugh at me. I may be small
but I can show you that I am stronger than you." Then Mousedeer showed him a piece of rope and
said:
"I will take one end of this rope
and you can take the other end. Then we
will pull. We will pull as hard as we
can. We will see which one of us is the
stronger. If you can pull me into the
water, then you can eat me."
Mousedeer threw one end of the rope to
Crocodile. Crocodile took the end of the
rope.
When Crocodile was not looking,
Mousedeer quickly climbed up a tree. He
tied his end of the rope to a big branch at the top of the tree. Then he came down and sat behind the tree.
Crocodile now held his end of the
rope. He thought that Mousedeer was
holding the other end. He did not know
that Mousedeer was just sitting behind the tree.
"Are you ready. Mr. Crocodile?" called Mousedeer. "One, two, three, P-U-L-L!"
Crocodile pulled as hard as he could.
The tree bent a
little towards the river. Crocodile
stopped to take a breath. At once the
tree went back and became straight. As
it went back and became straight. As it
went back the rope pulled Mr. Crocodile.
He was afraid. He began to think
that Mousedeer was pulling him out of the river.
So Crocodile pulled again very, very
hard. Again the tree bent a little. Crocodile was very tired. He stopeed to take a breath once more. At once the tree went back again. Crocodile thought the Mousedeer was really
going to pull him out of the water this time!
Mousedeer saw that the Crocodile was
afraid. He shouted to him, "You
look tired Mr. Crocodile. Do you want to
rest?" Crocodile agreed and gladly
let go of the rope.
Mousedeer ran happily along the
bank. He did not look tired at all. He said to Crocodile, "Did you like the
pull, Mr. Crocodile? It was a good
pull. You pulled very well, but I am
sure that next time I shall pull you out of the river. Come, let us try again."
Crocodile looked at mousedeer. He saw that Mousedeer did not look tired at
all. He was afraid that if he tried
again, Mousedeer would win. Mousedeer
was small but he must be very, very strong.
Crocodile said, "No, no, Mousedeer.
I cannot pull any more. You are
stronger than I am," and he swam slowly away, down the river.
