bottom of the well lest he should be eaten by the dragon, seizes s

twig growing in a crack in the well and clings to it. His hands

are growing weaker and he feels he will soon have to resign himself

to the destruction that awaits him above or below, but still he

clings on. Then he sees that two mice, a black one and a white

one, go regularly round and round the stem of the twig to which he

is clinging and gnaw at it. And soon the twig itself will snap and

he will fall into the dragon's jaws. The traveller sees this and