Aesop's Fables (Joseph Jacobs)
Jacobs 38. The Fox and the Cat (Perry
605)
A Fox was boasting to a Cat of its clever devices for escaping its enemies.
"I have a whole bag of tricks," he said, "which contains
a hundred ways of escaping my enemies."
"I have only one," said the Cat; "but I can generally
manage with that." Just at that moment they heard the cry of a pack
of hounds coming towards them, and the Cat immediately scampered up a
tree and hid herself in the boughs. "This is my plan," said
the Cat. "What are you going to do?" The Fox thought first of
one way, then of another, and while he was debating the hounds came nearer
and nearer, and at last the Fox in his confusion was caught up by the
hounds and soon killed by the huntsmen. Miss Puss, who had been looking
on, said:
"Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon."
The
Fables of Aesop, by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by
Richard Heighway (1894). The page images come from Google
Books. The digitized text comes from Project
Gutenberg. You can purchase this inexpensive Dover edition, The
Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs from amazon.com.
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