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. [Illustration: The Cat and the Mice.--Page 52. _Æsop._] THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLD EGG. In the good old times, a man and his wife had a goose that each day of her life laid a gold egg; but they thought that one egg from the time the sun rose till he set was slow work, and in the hopes that they should seize all the eggs at once, they put the goose to death. But to their great grief they found that their goose was just the same as all geese. “Ah, my dear,” quoth the old man, “he who has much would have more.” “True,” said his wife, with a sigh, “and so comes to lose all.” [Illustration: The Goose with the Gold Egg.--Page 54. _Æsop._] THE FOX AND THE STORK. [Illustration] One day the fox had a mind to play the wag with the stork, and said, “You must come and dine with me to day, for I have had good luck, and the soup will be rich.” When the time came for them to dine, the stork found to her grief, that the dish in which the soup was put was so flat that she could but dip in the point of her bill, while the fox could lap it up with his tongue. “It grieves me,” said he, “to see you make so poor a meal; I fear it is not to your mind.” The stork did not say much, but told her host that it was now his turn to come and dine with her. So he came, true to the hour. “Good day,” quoth the stork. “Now I hope you will feel that you are quite at home.” The smell of the stew was fine, but it was put in a jar with a thin neck, down which the stork thrust her long bill with ease, but all the fox could do was to lick the brim of it; and when the time came for him to take his leave, he made his bow with a bad grace. The stork told him that she had but paid him off in his own coin. Tit for tat. Good cat, good rat. [Illustration: The Fox and the Stork.--Page 54. _Æsop._] THE DAW AND THE JAY.