Once upon a time, in the heart of Africa, there lived a pride of lions. They had three lion cubs: Lenny, Lisa and Leon. Lenny and Leon were quick to learn everything but Lisa was a problematic child.
Their mother was teaching them how to hunt, how to protect themselves, how to chase away humans and unwanted animals by roaring at them, how to find the right place and time for drinking water and a hundred other Lion lessons. But Lisa was always distracted.
She wanted to play with the birds, trying to fly like them. She had races with the hares and the deer. Besides, she would try to make different sounds imitating various animals!
Her mother was thoroughly exasperated.
“Lisa, you have to roar!” she said. And she would show her how, “R-O-A-R!”
The birds, the hares and the deer would run into hiding as soon as they heard the roar.
“That’s how a lion behaves; otherwise, you’ll go hungry if you are alone!” scolded Mrs Lion.
At night she would grumble to Mr Lion, “Imagine being the daughter of the King of the jungle and she refuses to learn anything!”
One morning, a fox came to the jungle and saw little Lisa playing with some hares. He was a cunning old fellow.
‘This one doesn’t seem to have much sense!’ he thought, ‘If I can persuade her to become friendly with me, I’ll use her as she grows big to frighten and hunt big animals. Then I’ll never be hungry!’
Next morning, the fox joined the game when Lisa played with the hares. He made friends with her. But Lisa was surprised to find that every day some of the hares vanished. Lisa was not a fool. She had grown bigger and had watched her brothers too. She hid in a cave and saw the fox playing with the hares, and then it ate up some of them. Lisa was very angry. When the next time she saw the fox, she roared loudly!
The fox had never heard her roaring. He was frightened and ran for his life. Mrs Lion came running because she too was pleasantly surprised to hear Lisa roar!
“Ah! Now you really are Princess Lisa!” said her proud mother, as the fox vanished into the forest, never to
return again.
