[Illustration: THE CAT AND THE MICE.]
A certain house was much infested with Mice; but at last they got a Cat,
who catched and eat every day some of them. The Mice, finding their
numbers grow thin, consulted what was best to be done for the
preservation of the public from the jaws of the devouring Cat. They
debated and came to this resolution, That no one should go down below
the upper shelf. The Cat, observing the mice no longer came down as
usual, hungry and disappointed of her prey, had recourse to this
stratagem; she hung by her hinder legs on a peg which stuck in the wall,
and made as if she had been dead, hoping by this lure to entice the Mice
to come down. She had not been in this posture long, before a cunning
old Mouse peeped over the edge of the shelf, and spoke thus:--'Aha, my
good friend, are you there! there may you be! I would not trust myself
with you, though your skin were stuffed with straw.'