These Difficult Times

One day a squirrel and a pond-beaver stood in a clearing in the forest, arguing about which one was stronger.

"I'm stronger!" said the squirrel.

"Hah!" laughed the beaver. "You are not stronger than I."

"Yes, I am. See me lift this acorn!" The squirrel put an acorn into the air. "I'm strong!"

The beaver watched this and said, "You can lift a tiny acorn, but look at me!" The beaver clamped his toothy jaw around a log of wood and pulled it atop his beaver dam.

The squirrel was impressed. "Mm! Amazing! You are strongest!"

And the beaver was happy. For a moment.

Watching the debate between these two animals was a donkey. The donkey said, "Squirrel, you can lift an acorn, and beaver, you might lift a log, but look what's atop my back."

The two animals looked at the donkey and saw on top of him giant mass of equipment, a heavy canvas pack and shovels and supplies.

"Oooh! You are the strongest," the squirrel and beaver cried. "You are!"

Then, from the nearby forest came loud crash, and an enormous animal burst through the trees. It was an elephant, and the three other animals were shocked. The elephant was a mountain of an animal, and it loomed over the donkey and his pack.

"You may be strong, donkey," the elephant said, "but look what I can do!"

And with that the elephant moved swiftly to a large tree that had fallen into the clearing. The elephant shoved its tusks beneath the tree, coiled its snake-like trunk around it, and with a very loud grunt hoisted the tree—branches, leaves, tree trunk, and all—high into the air.

"There! Do you see?" the elephant boomed.

The squirrel, the beaver, and the donkey stood there, underneath the tree, with their mouths agape, as leaves and sticks fell to the ground around them.

With a loud thump, the elephant dropped the great tree back where it had fallen and said, "Do you see how strong I am!"

"Yes!" the three other animals shouted, clapping wildly, "We see! We see! You are the strongest!"

Then the elephant replied, "No! I am not strong!"

"What? Not strong?" the three smaller animals said.

"No. I am not strong."

The elephant pointed his trunk to the ground. "There, do you see that ant hill?"

The squirrel, the beaver, and the donkey all looked down to the ground and saw where the elephant pointed. It was a little ant hill, where tiny black ants carried slivers of leaves into their hole.

"They are the strongest. The ants."

"What!" cried the other animals.

"Yes. You squirrel are much bigger than they, yet you can only carry an acorn, and you beaver, you are stronger still. Yet you can carry only a log of wood, and you donkey, even stronger still, you can carry great bags of material but are not strong."

The other animals were speechless.

"It is the ants who are strongest, for they can carry their own weight many times over. Let each animal be judged by different measuring sticks, for each animal is different and should not be compared to each other. And any competition between animals is therefore foolish, for who among you can lift your own weight the way ants do."

The other animals stood there amazed and nodded their heads in agreement.