Animal Stories - Page 6

The stupid generals

No matter how many times they fought them, the Mouse Army was always being beaten by Weasel Army. "We need some good generals to lead us," said the mice.

The new mouse generals felt tremendously proud of themselves. "We must look big and important so everyone knows we're the leaders," they said to each other. They dressed up in smart uniforms, and found big helmets with large horns on top.

It made no difference. As usual, the weasels won easily. The mice dived into their holes as fast as they could. But the horns on the generals' helmets were bigger than their holes, so the weasels gobbled them up.

The greedy lion goes hungry

A greedy lion was padding softly around looking for an animal for breakfast. It was a warm day and, to his surprise, he found a hare fast asleep in the sunshine. He was just opening his mouth wide when he caught sight of a beautiful red deer leaping gracefully through the tall grass. "I'll come back for the hare," thought the greedy lion, and raced after the deer. He chased and he chased, and he got hungrier and hungrier, but it was no use.

The deer was faster than he was. In the end he gave up and stood with his tongue hanging out and his empty tummy flapping against his backbone. "I'll have to make do with the hare as a snack," he said. "What a pity. I was looking forward to a big breakfast." But the hare was no fool. The noise of the chase had woken him up and he scampered away laughing.

The rabbits get tired of living

All the rabbits and hares in the wood had a big meeting. "What a life!" they all grumbled to each other. "All day long we're chased by dogs, hunted by men, dropped on by eagles, and eaten by foxes and wolves." The more they talked, the more miserable they became until at last one of them said: "What's the point of living just to become supper for another animal. Let's all go and drown ourselves!"

"Good idea," yelled some of them. "Let's get on with it," shouted the others, as they rushed towards the lake. Round the water's edge the frogs and toads were happily croaking away to each other. When they saw the rabbits and hares charging towards them they leapt into the water with a big splash. "Extraordinary!" cried the rabbits, coming to a halt. "They are even more frightened than we are." "Perhaps we shouldn't drown ourselves after all," said some of them. "A very silly idea," said the others. "Who thought of it?" And they all went home feeling rather foolish.

The meddlesome monkey

A little monkey was sitting in the top of a tree by the river. Down below, fishermen were throwing their nets out into the water. "That looks fun," thought the monkey.

"I'd like to try it." When the fishermen went off for their lunch, he scampered down the tree and grabbed the nearest net. But he was much too small, and instead of throwing the net into the water, it wrapped itself round him. The more he wriggled to get free, the tighter it became until he rolled into the water. Luckily for him, the fishermen came back just in time to rescue him. "You stick to jumping around in trees," they said, "and leave us to do the fishing."

Even a bully has some pride

To tell you the truth, some lions are bullies. They are so strong they sometimes enjoy knocking other animals around. There was once a great lion that was dying in old age. In his life, he had injured many of the animals in the forest and now some of them came to take their revenge. The wild boar gave the old lion a slashing cut with his great tusks.

Next came a buffalo that lowered his horns and dug them into the lion's body. Last of all came a donkey who had suffered much from the lion's cruelty. With a loud cry of "hee-haw," he kicked the lion's head with his back legs. "Now it is time for me to die," whispered the old lion. "I could bear it when the other big and strong animals took their revenge. But to be kicked by a cowardly donkey is an insult too great to bear."

The rights of ownership

The big bad wolf was at it again. This time he had crept up on a flock of sheep in the dark and killed one. Now he was carrying it back to his den to enjoy a lazy day. Suddenly a lion leapt into the path before him. The wolf got such a shock his mouth dropped open. The sheep fell out at the lion's feet. "That's a very kind of you," said the lion. "This will save me the trouble of going out hunting." "You can't take that," spluttered the big bad wolf. "It belongs to me." The lion looked at him and slowly raised one eyebrow. "Really?" he said. "Did the sheep give you permission to kill it and take it home then?"

Killed by kindness

There was once a gorilla who had two baby gorillas. I don't know what they were called, but it might have been Guy and George. Guy was a tough-looking little chap, but George was smaller than he was. His mother loved him so dearly that, instead of letting him run around catching his own food and growing stronger everyday, she never let him out of her arms. She hugged him and cuddled him, while all the time Guy was growing up. The more Guy grew, the more George's mother hugged him to her until, one day, she hugged him so tightly he couldn't breathe, and died. She had killed the very thing she loved most by being too kind.

Frogs with no brains

"Psst! Have you heard?" one frog asked another. "The Sun is getting married!" In no time all the frogs new about it. They leapt out of the lake to have a big party. But one frog sat scratching his head and looking puzzled. "Let me think about this," he said to the others. "If the Sun gets married there will be two suns, so it will be twice as hot. And if they have baby Sun it will be even worse. The lake will dry up and we'll all die." "Help!" cried all the frogs and divided into the water to hide at the bottom of the lake.