The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

Once upon a time, a little mouse lived in a cosy hole at the edge of a wheat field.

Her home was simple. Her bed was made of soft dry grass. Her cupboard held barley grains, a few peas, some seeds and a crust of bread that a farmer had dropped. In the evenings she sat outside her door and listened to the crickets sing.

She was a country mouse, and she was very content.

A visitor from town

One day her cousin came to visit. He was a town mouse, and he lived in a big house in the middle of a busy town.

The town mouse had shiny whiskers and a very smart tail. He looked around the little hole and sniffed.

The country mouse laid out the best food she had: barley, peas, a few seeds and the crust of bread.

The town mouse nibbled one pea. He nibbled one grain. Then he put his paws down.

"My dear cousin," he said, "how can you live like this? Plain seeds, every day! Quiet fields, every night! Come to town with me, and I'll show you how a mouse should live. You'll never want to come back."

The country mouse looked at her little home. Then she thought of the big town. She had never seen it.

"All right," she said. "I'll come."

The great feast

They walked all through the night, and they reached the town just as the lamps were being lit. The town mouse led his cousin through a crack in the wall of a grand house.

Inside was a dining room bigger than the whole wheat field, or so it seemed to her. And the long table was covered with the remains of a feast.

There was cake with sugar on top. There was cheese, soft and yellow. There were jellies that wobbled, and nuts, and figs, and honey in a silver dish.

The country mouse's eyes grew round. "Is all this for us?"

"Help yourself," said the town mouse grandly.

The country mouse climbed up and took a tiny bite of cheese. It was the most delicious thing she had ever tasted.

A noise at the door

Just then, the door swung open with a bang.

In came the servants, laughing and talking, to clear the table. The two mice leapt down and dashed into a hole in the wall. They crouched in the dark, their hearts thumping.

When it was quiet again, they crept back out. The country mouse reached for a piece of cake.

Woof! Woof!

Two big dogs came bounding into the room, sniffing and barking. The mice raced back into the hole and pressed themselves flat against the wall. They waited for a long, long time.

When the dogs had gone, the town mouse smoothed his whiskers. "Now then," he said, "where were we?"

But the country mouse was already putting on her little coat.

Going home

"Thank you, cousin," she said. "Your food is wonderful, and your house is very grand. But I'd rather eat plain barley in peace than eat cake and be frightened all the time."

And she walked all the way home through the fields.

That night, she sat outside her little hole with a crust of bread. The stars came out. The crickets sang. Nobody burst through any doors, and no dogs barked at all.

It was the best supper she had ever had.

About this story

This fable is credited to Aesop, the storyteller of ancient Greece, and the Roman poet Horace told it in a poem too. It has been retold all over the world for more than two thousand years. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.