The Mouse and the Kindly Thread

A Mouse entering a tangled hedge found a red thread tied around a thorn.

“Hold fast,” said the Thread. “I have guided many safely.”

The Mouse followed. At each fork the Thread bent toward the narrower path. Whenever he hesitated, it named animals who had gone before and praised his courage for continuing.

From above, an Owl asked, “Does it lead out?”

“It has always led onward,” replied the Mouse.

At the center sat a spindle wound thick with red thread. No animal tended it. With every step the Mouse had taken, the spindle had turned and the hedge had grown behind him.

“Then you were not following the Thread,” said the Owl. “You were feeding it.”