"Two Travelers and the Bear" - A Fable by Aesop
Two boys were taking a shortcut on a narrow path through dark and tangled
woods. They walked silently through the deep shadows and they pretended not
to hear the rustlings in the thickets, for neither wanted to admit that he was
frightened.
Then the air rumbled with a low, menacing growl.
"Don't look; I'm sure it's nothing," said the first boy quickly.
"Well, it's a very large nothing!" shouted the second boy. There,
lumbering toward them, was a monstrous, hairy bear.
The two friends began to run. Before they had taken three steps, however, the
first boy stumbled and sprawled upon the ground.
"Help me!" he cried as he scrambled to get up.
But his friend ran on. He clambered up a towering pine tree and sat astride
a bough, clutching the tree trunk and quaking.
The horrible bear loomed over the first boy. Mouth wide, teeth glinting, the
bear lunged.
Now, luckily for this boy, he had learned his lessons well, and he remembered
that bears usually do not bother anything that is not moving. So, he threw himself
facedown in the dirt.
When he felt the bear's hot breath on his ankle, the boy stayed very, very
still. When a heavy bear paw lightly touched his back, he closed his eyes and
willed himself not to move. The bear sniffed and snuffled, pawed, prodded, and
pushed at the boy, until finally the beast's muzzle was next to the boy's face.
The creature whiffed and snorted as he nuzzled the boy's ear. Although the boy
was in an agony of fright, still he lay unmoving.
After a time, the bear became bored with the limp lump that was the boy. With
a final swipe of his huge paw, he turned away and shuffled back into the woods.
At that, the first boy's friend came running back.
"That was amazing!" said the second boy. "The bear put his nose
right on your ear! Why, it looked as though he even whispered some secret to
you! What did he say?"
The first boy glared at his companion. "The bear told me I need to find a more dependable friend!" he said as he stomped away.
What's the moral of this story?
A friend in need is a friend indeed!
Return to lesson "Two Travelers and the Bear": A Lesson on Aesop's Fable
