Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)
140. The Cat and the Mice (Perry 79)
A CERTAIN HOUSE was overrun with Mice. A Cat, discovering this, made
her way into it and began to catch and eat them one by one. Fearing for
their lives, the Mice kept themselves close in their holes. The Cat was
no longer able to get at them and perceived that she must tempt them forth
by some device. For this purpose she jumped upon a peg, and suspending
herself from it, pretended to be dead. One of the Mice, peeping stealthily
out, saw her and said, 'Ah, my good madam, even though you should turn
into a meal-bag, we will not come near you.'

George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is
in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project
Gutenberg.
Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with
illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google
Books. |