The Bear and the Gardener in this case keeping the flies off a friend, and the ultimate good of safeguarding his welfare. The story gained currency in England from the 18th century on through translations or imitations of La Fontaine. One of its earliest appearances was in Robert Dodsley's "Select fables of Esop and other fabulists" (1764), where it is given the title "The Hermit and the Bear" and a milder ending. In this version a hermit has done the bear a good turn; later still this was identified with taking a thorn from its paw, drawing on the story of Androcles and the Lion.
The Wounded Lion had promised the princess that she had found her a bridegroom. They went back to the princess, and her parents, the king and queen, knew him for their own son. So he married the girl who had saved him. The lion with a thorn in its paw and who, after being freed from his pain, becomes friend with the character who saved him is similar to "The Lion and the Mouse". The Wounded Lion The Wounded Lion is a Spanish fairy tale collected by D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros, in "Cuentos Populars Catalans". Andrew Lang included it in