

The Cat and the Mice.A certain house was overrun with Mice. A Cat, discovering this, made herway into it, and began to catch and eat them one by one. The Mice, beingcontinually devoured, kept themselves close in their holes. The Cat, nolonger able to get at them, perceived that she must tempt them forth bysome device. For this purpose she jumped upon a peg, and, suspendingherself from it, pretended to be dead. When the Mice came near shepounced among them and killed a great number. Pleased with the successof the trick, she tried another. She whitened herself with flour, andlay still on the heap of bags, as though she was one of them. The youngMice crept dangerously near her, but an old one peeping stealthily outsaid: "Ah, my good madam, though you should turn into a real flour-bag,I will not come too near you." Avoid even appearances of danger. From Aesop's Fables |