A Town Mouse once visited her relative who lived in the country for lunch. The Country Mouse served her wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a cold water dash for a drink.
The Town Mouse ate very sparingly. Nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very explicit that she ate the simple food only to be polite to the Country mouse.
After the meal, the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse bosted about her life in the city, while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cosy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep, the Country Mouse dreamed she was with the Town Mouse, enjoying all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her. So the next day, when the Town Mouse asked the Country Mouse to came along with her to the city, the Country Mouse gladly said yes.
When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found the leavings of a splendid banquet on the table in the dining room. There were sweetmeats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed, the most tempting foods that a Mouse can imagine. But just as the Country Mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a Cat mew loudly and scratched at the door. The Mice ran with short quick steps to a hiding place in great fear, where they lay quite still for a long, long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they dared to venture back to the feast, the dining room door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, closely followed by the House Dog.
"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not." said the Country Mouse, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."
The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpetbag and umbrella, and she hurried back to her country house.
Moral: Poverty with security is better than plenty amid fear and uncertainty.
Stories Retold:- Original Source:- The Aesop Fables
