The Hungry Mouse
The
Hungry Mouse
A mouse was having a
very bad time. She could find no food at all. She looked here and there, but
there was no food, and she grew very thin. At last the mouse found a basket,
full of corn. There was a small hole in the basket, and she crept in. She could
just get through the hole.
Then she began to eat
the corn. Being very hungry, she ate a great deal, and went on eating and
eating. She had grown very fat before she felt that she had had enough.
When the mouse tried
to climb out of the basket, she could not. She was too fat to pass through the
hole.
“How shall I climb
out?” said the mouse. “oh, how shall I climb out?”. Just then a rat came along,
and he heard the mouse.
“Mouse,” said the rat,
“if you want to climb out of the basket, you must wait till you had grown as
thin as you were when you went in.”