The frog eagerly replied, "I can carry you across the river on my back. That is easy for me! To be safe, however, we should use some string to tie your foot to mine so that you will not get swept away." The mouse gladly agreed and even supplied the string. The frog then tied the mouse's foot to his own and the mouse climbed up on his back. "Hang on!" the frog shouted and then leaped into the river.
The frog was such a strong swimmer that they soon reached the middle of the river, but then the frog did a very wicked thing to the mouse. "Now I have you in my power," he shouted, "and I am going to drown you!" The frog plunged down into the river's depths, while the poor mouse struggled to keep his head above water.
Meanwhile, a hawk was flying overhead and saw the mouse splashing in the water. "That mouse will make a nice dinner," he thought. He swooped down, grabbed the mouse, and flew away. The frog was pulled up into the air too, tied as he was to the mouse. "Lucky me!" cried the hawk. "I've got a mouse for my dinner and a frog for dessert." Thus ended the lives of both the mouse and the frog.
The moral of the story is that people who try to harm others may end up harming themselves as well.
