"
"This is very terrible," said the little
Country Mouse; "let us not go back to the
cupboard again."
"No," said the City Mouse, "I will take
you to the cellar; there is something especial
there."
So the City Mouse took his little friend
down the cellar stairs and into a big cupboard
where there were many shelves. On
the shelves were jars of butter, and cheeses
in bags and out of bags. Overhead hung
bunches of sausages, and there were spicy
apples in barrels standing about. It
smelled so good that it went to the little
Country Mouse's head. He ran along the
shelf and nibbled at a cheese here, and a
bit of butter there, until he saw an especially
rich, very delicious-smelling piece of
cheese on a queer little stand in a corner.
He was just on the point of putting his
teeth into the cheese when the City Mouse
saw him.
"Stop! stop!" cried the City Mouse.
"That is a trap!"
The little Country Mouse stopped and
said, "What is a trap?"
"That thing is a trap," said the little
City Mouse. "The minute you touch the
cheese with your teeth something comes
down on your head hard, and you're dead."
The little Country Mouse looked at the
trap, and he looked at the cheese, and he
looked at the little City Mouse. "If you'll
excuse me," he said, "I think I will go
home. I'd rather have barley and grain
to eat and eat it in peace and comfort, than
have brown sugar and dried prunes and
cheese,--and be frightened to death all
the time!"
So the little Country Mouse went back
to his home, and there he stayed all the rest
of his life.
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