The Kings Son and the Painted Lion

英语自学网

The Kings Son and the Painted Lion
        A KING, whose only son was fond of martial exercises, had a dream
        in which he was warned that his son would be killed by a lion.
        Afraid the dream should prove true, he built for his son a
        pleasant palace and adorned its walls for his amusement with all
        kinds of life-sized animals, among which was the picture of a
        lion.  When the young Prince saw this, his grief at being thus
        confined burst out afresh, and, standing near the lion, he said:
        "O you most detestable of animals! through a lying dream of my
        father's, which he saw in his sleep, I am shut up on your account
        in this palace as if I had been a girl:  what shall I now do to
        you?'  With these words he stretched out his hands toward a
        thorn-tree, meaning to cut a stick from its branches so that he
        might beat the lion.  But one of the tree's prickles pierced his
        finger and caused great pain and inflammation, so that the young
        Prince fell down in a fainting fit.  A violent fever suddenly set
        in, from which he died not many days later.
       
        We had better bear our troubles bravely than try to escape them.