Once when a white kitten spied the tip of her tail, she tried to catch it. Round and round she went so fast that she turned into a white ball. But, of course, the tail went as fast as she did, so she couldn’t catch up with it. Soon she grew so dizzy that she had to stop. There she was back again, a sensible white kitten.
A CONCEITED GRASSHOPPER
The other day a very young grasshopper and an old rooster were out in the field together.
“I can jump higher than anyone in this field,” cried the grasshopper. The rooster said nothing, but opened his mouth as if he meant to yawn.
“Here I go,” cried the grasshopper, and she jumped so high that she landed in the rooster’s mouth. The rooster gobbled her up.
And that was the end of her and her boasting.
THE MOUSE’S ESCAPE
A little gray mouse lived in a hole in our kitchen closet. One day she smelled some cheese. “M-m,” she said, “how delicious!” She peeped out to see whether Tom, our cat, was in the kitchen. He wasn’t. Out she stole, sniffed about, and found the cheese. Just as she began to nibble it, along came Tom. The little mouse darted back into her safe hole.
WHAT THE WHITE HEN DID FOR THE WORLD
One morning the white hen went into the barn. The rooster saw her go, but he didn’t stop her. After a few minutes out she came, clucking to the whole world, “Cut-cut-cut-cut-cadah-cut! Cut-cut-cut-cut-cadah-cut!” And the whole world as well as the rooster knew she had laid an egg.