J. H. Stickney

The Man and the Lion

A MAN and a Lion were once journeying together and came at length to high words as to which was the braver and stronger creature of the two. As the dispute waxed warmer they happened to pass on the roadside, the statue of a man strangling a lion. "See there," said the Man. "What more proof can you have of our undeniable superiority than that?"

"That," said the Lion, "is a man's version of the story; let us be the sculptors, and for one lion under the feet of man, you shall have twenty men under the paws of lions."