Æsop's fables in words of one syllable

Chapter 60: THE CAT AND THE MICE.

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About This Book

A collection of short, self-contained fables retold in simple monosyllabic language for young readers. Each brief tale stages animal characters in a single situation that leads to a clear outcome and an explicit moral, exploring themes such as honesty, pride, prudence, selfishness, and the consequences of deceit or folly. Lines are spare and direct, often paired with small illustrations, and the arrangement of discrete episodes emphasizes cause-and-effect and memorable aphorisms to make ethical lessons accessible and easy to discuss.

THE CAT AND THE MICE.

An old dame dwelt in a house that had such swarms of mice in it that she got a cat, who caught and ate them one by one. But in course of time all the mice kept on the top shelves to be out of the cat’s reach, and puss saw that at this rate she should starve. So she hit on a plan, which was to hang in a bag, by her hind legs, from a peg in the shelf, that she might pass for dead. The young mice took no heed of her, but the old ones gave a peep round the edge of the shelf, and said, “Ah, you sly thing! We see you! Hang there as long as you please, but we would not trust a child of ours to go near you, though you were full of straw.”

Old birds are not caught with chaff.

The Cat and the Mice.—Page 52.

Æsop.