Tradition and story time — not medical advice
The Valiant Chattee-Maker
Retold for young children from Old Deccan Days (collected by Mary Frere, 1868), public domain.
A humble potter, who made clay chattees (water pots) for a living, was mistaken one day for a mighty warrior by a Rajah who was gathering soldiers for battle. Too polite and too frightened to correct such an important man, the potter found himself given fine armor and a spirited war-horse, and sent off with the army.
The potter had never ridden a horse in his life, so his wife tied him firmly onto the saddle with rope, just so he wouldn't fall off. But the moment the horse felt all those ropes, it panicked and bolted, galloping wildly across fields and ditches with the terrified potter clinging on for dear life, shouting for it to stop.
As the runaway horse thundered toward the enemy camp, the potter grabbed at a small tree to try to stop himself — and instead of stopping, he tore the whole tree right out of the ground and kept galloping onward, tree and all!
The enemy soldiers, watching a wild-eyed man come roaring toward them on a runaway horse, ripping up trees along the way, decided he must be the fiercest warrior they'd ever seen — and the whole army fled in terror rather than face him, leaving their camp completely empty.
When the frightened potter finally came to a stop in the abandoned camp, he found a letter left behind proposing peace. He carried it home himself, and was given great honor and reward for what looked, to everyone else, like remarkable bravery — though only he and his wife ever knew the real story.
Talk about it (ours, not from the source): the potter was really just holding on tight and hoping for the best! Have you ever felt brave on the outside even though you were nervous inside?
Source: Old Deccan Days, collected by Mary Frere (1868, John Murray) — "The Valiant Chattee-Maker". Public domain. Read the original.
Why public domain: US: first published 1868 (this edition 1898), more than 95 years ago, so public domain in the US. Collector Mary Frere died 1911; public domain in India (life + 60 years) since 1971.