A young Mouse, on his return to his hole after leaving it for the first
time, thus recounted his adventures to his mother: "Mother," said he,
"quitting this narrow place where you have brought me up, I was
rambling about to-day like a Young Mouse of spirit, who wished to see
and to be seen, when two such notable creatures came in my way! One
was so gracious, so gentle and benign; the other, who was just as noisy
and forbidding, had on his head and under his chin pieces of raw meat,
which shook at every step he took; and then, all at once, beating his
sides with the utmost fury, he uttered such a harsh and piercing cry
that I fled in terror; and this, too, just as I was about to introduce
myself to the other stranger, who was covered with fur like our own,
only richer looking and much more beautiful, and who seemed so modest
and benevolent that it did my heart good to look at her."
"Ah, my son," replied the Old Mouse, "learn while you live to distrust
appearances. The first strange creature was nothing but a Fowl, that
will ere long be killed, and, when put on a dish in the pantry, we may
make a delicious supper of his bones, while the other was a nasty, sly,
and bloodthirsty hypocrite of a Cat, to whom no food is so welcome as a
young and juicy Mouse like yourself."