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Group One
1 Some timid bunnies
2 The hare outruns
3 The lion is ashamed
4 Grandma ewe
5 A fool scolds
6 The wolf fails
7 A canny bat
8 A gullible wolf
9 The amorous lion
10 Some revelers
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9. An Amorous Lion Becomes a Fool
A fearsome young lion one day fell in love
With a woodcutter's daughter, as sweet as a dove,
So the lion strode up to their
home in the wood,
And he roared out his passion
as loud as he could.
I must marry that maiden!
Woodcutter, he said,
But the father's great heart was stricken with dread,
He was scared to say No to the
frightening beast,
Yet he feared a young wife
might soon be deceased.
He thought up a trick: with the lion so smitten
Perhaps he could turn the beast into a kitten.
King Lion,
he said,
Look, your great teeth and sharp mits
Have frightened my daughter half out of her wits.
If you pull out your teeth, if you pare down your claws,
I am sure she will be less afraid than she was.
The lion gave in, and came back looking weird
With his claws sanded down and his teeth disappeared,
May I marry her now?
he said (minus the roar).
BEGONE
! laughed the dad, and drove him from the door.
MORAL: Love can make fools of us.
from the book Praying Your Story and the forthcoming book Aesop's Best: 80 Fables in Verse by William Cleary
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