THE GREEDY CAT.
Once upon a time there lived a cat and a mouse, and they thought they would ask each other to dinner, turn and turn about. First it was the cat’s turn to ask the mouse, and he set his table and invited her, but he did not have much to eat; only a dry crust of bread and some water. But the mouse, who was very polite, ate it and thanked the cat.
When it was the mouse’s turn to give a dinner, she spread a fine feast, platters of fish, and saucers of milk, and joints of meat. Then she baked a large cake with sugar on the top for the cat, and for herself she made a very tiny cake with no frosting.
The cat came to the mouse’s dinner, and he ate the fish and the meat, and lapped the milk, and ate the cake. Then he looked around in a greedy way, and he said:
“What a very light dinner. Have you nothing more in the house to eat, mouse?”
“Here is my cake,” said the mouse, who was not at all greedy.
So the cat ate the mouse’s cake, and then he looked about again in a greedy way, and he said:
“Have you anything more to eat, mouse?”
“Nothing, kind sir,” said the mouse, “unless you eat me.”