巫师和老鼠

张祖平

Long ago， there lived a great wizard. One day， when he was walking through the village， suddenly a mouse fell to the ground from the beak2 of a crow. He picked up the mouse and fed him some rice.

Then， one day， the wizard saw a cat running after the mouse around the village. Scared that his pet mouse would be killed by the cat， he turned the mouse into a cat so that it could protect itself.

The next day， the wizard saw his cat frightened by a tiger and right away changed him into a tiger.

The villagers said， “That’s not a tiger！It’s just a mouse that the wizard changed into a tiger. He won’t eat us or even scare us.”

When the tiger heard this， he was very angry with the wizard. He thought， “As long as the wizard is alive， the truth about my real nature will always be spoken！” He wanted to eat up the wizard.

As soon as the wizard saw the tiger coming， he understood his thought and shouted， “Turn back into a mouse.” The tiger became a little mouse again.

Moral3： Whoever we grow up to be， we should always be humble4.

從前有一个很厉害的巫师。一天他正路过一个村庄，突然一只老鼠从一只乌鸦的嘴里掉下来，巫师捡起老鼠，给它喂了些大米。

然后，有一天，巫师看见一只猫围着村庄追赶那只老鼠。巫师担心他的宠物老鼠被猫吃掉，他把老鼠变成了一只猫，这样，它就能保护自己了。

第二天，巫师发现他的猫被一只老虎恐吓，他立刻把猫变成了一只老虎。

一个村民说道：“那不是一只老虎。它只是一只老鼠而已，是巫师把它变成了一只老虎，他不会吃我们，甚至都吓唬不了我们。”

老虎听到这些话，对巫师很生气。它想：“只要巫师还活着，关于我真面目的真相总会被说起！”他想吃了巫师。

但是，当巫师看到老虎过来的时候，他明白了它的想法，大吼一声：“变回老鼠吧！”老虎又变回了一只小老鼠。