A Friend in Need and Other Stories

Once upon a time there lived four friends in a forest. They were very different from each other; yet, they were best friends and always came to each other’s aid when required. The friends were: a mouse, a crow, a deer, and a tortoise. This is a story of how these friends, who ordinarily would have been natural enemies helped each other against their biggest enemy – Man, who was a hunter.

One-day, the mouse, crow, and deer were gossiping under a tree. They suddenly heard a scream. It was their friend, the tortoise! He was trapped in a hunter’s net.

“Uh oh!” exclaimed the deer fearfully, “what do we do now?”

“Do not despair” said the mouse, “I have a plan” and the tree friends huddled together and decided on their plan of action.

The deer ran towards the hunter who was close to the tortoise caught in the net. He reached their without the knowledge of the hunter, and lay down in his path as though dead. The crow flew towards the deer and acted as though he were pecking at the deer. The hunter picked up the net and started walking home, when he suddenly laid eyes on the wondrous sight of a dead deer. “Hey, here is a deer, all ready for me” He thought and put down his net and walked towards the deer. The crow continued circling the deer, and flapping his wings furiously whenever the hunter tried to push him away. In the meantime, the mouse hopped to the tortoise and started chewing the threads of the net. As the crow kept the hunter at bay, the mouse freed the hunter. As soon as the crow saw that the tortoise was free, he let out a loud caw and flew away. The deer suddenly got up and ran! The hunter stood stunned and decided to go back to the tortoise, only to see that his net was torn, and the tortoise had escaped. “If only I hadn’t been so greedy” he thought.

The four friends met again under the tree, and could not stop laughing at the trick that they had played on the hunter. Oh! What good friends they were, always their for each other!