There were once a House Mouse and a Country Mouse who met on the edge of the forest. The Country Mouse sat in a hazel bush gathering nuts.
"Blessing on your work!" said the House Mouse. "Do I meet kinsfolk so far out here in the country?" "Yes, indeed," said the Country Mouse. "You're gathering nuts, I see, and taking them home," said the House Mouse. "I have to, if we're to have anything to live on during the winter," said the Country Mouse. "The husks are big, and the shells are full this year, so they 'll go a long way to fill stomachs," said the House Mouse. "That is indeed so," said the Country Mouse, who declared that she was well off and lived comfortably. The House Mouse maintained that she was better off, but the Country Mouse stuck to her point, and said there was no place as good as forest and mountains, and that she was better off herself. The House Mouse said she was better off, and this they could not agree on. As last they promised to visit one another at Christmas so they could see which one was better off.
The House Mouse was the first to go on her Christmas visit. She scurried through forest and deep valleys, and even thought the Country Mouse had moved down the mountain for the winter, the way was both long and hard. It was uphill, and the snow was deep and loose, so that she grew both tired and hungry before she got there.
"Now it will be good to have some food," she thought when she arrived. The Country Mouse had scraped together pretty well; there were nut kernels, and many different kinds of rots, and all sorts of good things, which grow in forest and field. She had stored it all in a hole deep down in the ground so that it wouldn't freeze. Close by was a spring which was open the whole winter so she could drink as much water as she wanted. There was enough of what there was, and they ate both heartily and well, but the House Mouse thought it no more than the bare necessities of life.
"On this one can keep alive," she said. "But it's not particularly good. Now you must be so kind as to come to see me, and taste my food." Yes, this the Country Mouse would do, and it wasn't long before she came. The House Mouse had gathered together all the Christmas fares which the wife go the house had spilled. There were bits of cheese, and butter, and tallow, and crumbs of buttered bannock and oatcakes spread with cream. In the pan set to catch the drip from the beer tap she had drink enough, and the whole parlor was filled with all kinds of good things to eat. They ate and lived well, and there was almost no end to the Country Mouse's appetite; such food she had never tasted. Then she became thirsty, for the food was both rich and fat, she said, and at last she had to have a drink.
"It's not far to the beer. This is where we drink," said the House Mouse, and she jumped up on the edge of the pan; but she drank no more than would quench her thirst for she knew the Christmas beer and knew it was strong. But the Country Mouse thought it was a glorious drink - she had never tasted anything but water - and took one sip after the other. She wasn't used to strong drink, so she was tipsy before she came down off the pan. Then she became light-headed, and it went to her feet, and she took to running and hopping from one beer barrel to the other, and dancing and cavorting on the shelves among the cups and mugs, and peeping and squeaking as though she were both drunk and mad - and drunk she was, too, by now.
"You mustn't carry on as though you've just come out of the mountain today," said the House Mouse. "Don't make such a fuss and don't kick up such a racket. We've got quite a strict bailiff here," she said.
The Country Mouse said she respected neither bailiff nor tramp. But the Cat sat dozing on the cellar door, and heard both the chattering and the commotion. Just then the wife went down to tap beer into the jug, and lifted up the door, so the Cat slipped into the cellar and pounced on the Country Mouse. And now she danced another tune, I can tell you. The House Mouse popped into her hole, and sat safely watching the Country Mouse, who sobered up at once when she felt the Cat's claws. "Oh, my dear bailiff! My dear bailiff! Have mercy and spare my life, and I'll tell you a story," she said. "Out with it!" said the Cat. ! Once there were two little mice," said the Country Mouse, squeaking slowly and so pitiably, for she wanted to drag it out as long as she could. "Then they weren't along!" said the Cat, both short and cross. "Then they had a roast we were going to roast for ourselves." "Then you didn't go hungry!" said the Cat. "Then we put it out on the roof to cool off," said the Country Mouse. "Then you didn't burn yourselves," said the Cat "Then the fox and the Crow came and took it and ate it," said the Country Mouse. "Then I'm going to eat you!" said the Cat.
But at that moment the wife slammed the cellar door and the Cat was so startled that he let go his hold. And whoosh! The Country Mouse darted into the hole of the House Mouse. From there she went right out into the snow, and she wasn't slow in heading for home. "You call this being well off, and say that you live best?" the Country Mouse said to the House Mouse. "Heaven content me with less, then, instead of such a big manor and such a hawk for a bailiff. Why, I barely got away with my life!"