BELLING THE CAT

BELLING THE CAT

Once there were some mice who lived in a house. They had a cosy little home behind a wall, and the scraps they found to eat were always delicious.

There was only one thing to spoil their happiness. A big cat lived in the house, too. Every day, the cat caught a mouse and ate it. 

At last the mice said to one another, 'We must do something about that cat. If she isn't stopped soon, we will all be eaten!'

So all the mice tried to come up with a way to stop the cat from eating them. After a while one old mouse said, I've thought of something. If we put a bell on the cat, we'll always hear her coming. Then we can run away and hide.' 

'What a good idea!' said all the other mice. So they scurried off to look for a bell. As soon as they found one, they took it to the old mouse.

'It was your idea,' they said, 'so your should put the bell on the cat."

'Oh, no!' said the old mouse. 'I am much too old. I can't run as fast as you younger mice. One of you should do it!' 

'We can't do it,' said the younger mice. "What would happen to our poor families if one of us got hurt?'

'And we can't do it,' said the baby mice. 'We're much too little!'

In the end, no one would agree to put the bell

on the cat. So the cat continued to eat the mice, until they were all gone. 

MORAL: Some things are more easily said than done.