A crow once watched a little mouse gnaw through a hunter’s net and set a whole flock of pigeons free. “What a friend to have!” thought the crow, and he asked the mouse to be his friend. The mouse was wary at first, but the crow kept his word, and they became close friends.
The crow flew the mouse to a quiet lake where his old friend the tortoise lived. One day a frightened deer came running to the lake, escaping from hunters. The three friends welcomed him, and now they were four.
Not long after, the deer did not come home. The crow flew high and spotted him caught in a net. He carried the mouse there on his back, and the mouse nibbled through the ropes.
The slow tortoise had followed them, worried about his friend. Just then the hunter arrived. The deer bounded away, the crow flew up and the mouse slipped into a hole, but the tortoise was too slow. The hunter tied him to his bow and set off home.
The friends made a plan. The deer lay by the path as if he had fainted, and the crow perched on him as if pecking. The hunter saw the deer, put the tortoise down and hurried towards it. At once the mouse gnawed the tortoise free, and he slid into the water.
When the hunter came near, the crow cawed, the deer sprang up and ran, and the hunter went home with nothing. The four friends met again by the lake, each glad of the others.