The Cat and the Mice


102. THE CAT AND THE MICE. A Cat, grown feeble with age, and no longer able to hunt the Mice as she was wont to do, bethought herself how she might entice them within reach of her paw. Thinking that she might pass herself off for a bag, or for a dead cat at least, she suspended herself by the hind legs from a peg, in the hope that the Mice would no longer be afraid to come near her.
An old Mouse, who was wise enough to keep his distance, whispered to a friend, "Many a bag have I seen in my day, but never one with a cat’s head.”
“Hang there, good Madam,” said the other, “as long as you please, but I would not trust myself within reach of you though you were stuffed with straw.”
Old birds are not to be caught with chaff. [more info]

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