“‘Stop, stop!’ roared Yellow Lion.
“‘Here is a chapter,’ said I, ‘which tells how a lion got caught in a net and how a poor, little mouse in return for a kindness cut the net with his sharp teeth and set the lion free.’
“‘What kindness?’ asked Yellow Lion.
“‘All that the lion did,’ I answered, ‘was to buy a book which the mouse was selling.’
“‘I’ll take that book,’ said Yellow Lion. ‘I’ll take a hundred of them—and when I get out I’ll make everybody else buy one.’
“‘All right, Yellow Lion,’ said I.
“Then I gnawed the net, and Yellow Lion got away. The king of beasts kept his word. I sold more than a million copies of the book from that one sample, for Yellow Lion told all the beasts that they must buy. That is how I became so rich.”
“You are certainly a clever little animal,” said Gray Mouse, when Church Mouse had finished the story. “I am very proud of my rich brother.”