The Mice and the Weasels

For many years, the field mice and the weasels had been at war. The weasels were much bigger and faster than the tiny mice, so the mice almost always lost their battles.

One evening, the mice held a great meeting in the center of the field to try and solve their problem.

“The reason we keep losing,” squeaked an older mouse, “is because we have no real leaders! When the weasels attack, we all just run around in a chaotic panic. We need to elect strong, brave Generals to organize our army and lead us into battle!”

All the other mice cheered and clapped their tiny paws. They thought this was a brilliant idea. They quickly held an election and voted for the bravest, loudest mice to become their highly respected Generals.

The newly elected Generals felt incredibly important. They puffed out their small chests and strutted around the field. But they soon realized a problem: they looked exactly like all the other ordinary mice! How would the regular mouse army know who was in charge during a battle?

To solve this, the Generals created magnificent, tall helmets made out of shiny dried grass and twigs. They placed these huge, decorated helmets on top of their heads. Now they looked incredibly grand and extremely important.

Shortly after the Generals put on their new helmets, the terrible weasels launched a sneak attack!

“To arms! To arms!” shouted the new Generals, trying to organize the troops. But the weasels were too frightening and too fast. After only a few minutes of fighting, the regular mice gave up and scampered away as fast as they could.

Because they were so small and quick, all the regular mice easily squeezed into their tiny, hidden mouse-holes underneath the roots of the trees. They were perfectly safe.

The Generals tried to run into the mouse-holes with them. But there was a massive problem! The beautiful, tall grass helmets they were wearing were far too big to fit through the narrow openings!

They pushed and shoved, trying to squeeze their heads into the holes, but the heavy helmets kept getting stuck. While the Generals were struggling and squeaking to get their big hats through the narrow doors, the weasels easily caught them.

Moral of the Story: Greatness has its penalties. Showing off and acting overly important can often lead you straight into trouble.