THE TOWN RAT AND THE COUNTRY RAT

Aesop's fable "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" contrasts a luxurious but dangerous city life with a simple, safe country life. A city mouse visits his country cousin, inviting him to a lavish feast that is interrupted by scary dangers. The country mouse returns home, preferring humble safety over precarious luxury.

The town mouse was uncomfortable in the country as he could not sleep on the ground it was very hard for him, also he didn't like the food of the countryside.

A Town Mouse visits a cousin in the country and disdains the Country Mouse's lifestyle. They both then visit the city and are confronted by several dangerous situations, even though they eat well. The Country Mouse decides that the quieter, rural life is to be preferred.

A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water for drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.

After the meal the friends had a long talk, or rather the Town Mouse talked about her life in the city while the Country Mouse listened. They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning. In her sleep the Country Mouse dreamed she was a Town Mouse with 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 go home with her to the city, she gladly said yes.

When they reached the mansion in which the Town Mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet. 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 scratch at the door. In great fear the Mice scurried to a hiding place, where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe. When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the House Dog.

The Country Mouse stopped in the Town Mouse's den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.

"You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not," she said as she hurried away, "but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it."

Poverty with security is better than plenty in the midst of fear and uncertainty. ‹ backnext ›

THE ASTRAL TRAVELERS