Levi went to his bedroom and picked out four books for me to read to him this afternoon. One of them was an old book that I had when I was a kid called The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. It's an old Aesop Fable that's been retold many times by many different authors. The fable goes like this...
THE TOWN MOUSE AND THE COUNTRY MOUSE
A Town Mouse and a Country Mouse were acquaintances, and the Country Mouse one day invited his friend to come and see him at his home in the fields. The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour. The fare was not much to the taste of the guest, and presently he broke out with "My poor dear friend, you live here no better than the ants. Now, you should just see how I fare! My larder is a regular horn of plenty. You must come and stay with me, and I promise you you shall live on the fat of the land." So when he returned to town he took the Country Mouse with him, and showed him into a larder containing flour and oatmeal and figs and honey and dates. The Country Mouse had never seen anything like it, and sat down to enjoy the luxuries his friend provided: but before they had well begun, the door of the larder opened and some one came in. The two Mice scampered off and hid themselves in a narrow and exceedingly uncomfortable hole. Presently, when all was quiet, they ventured out again; but some one else came in, and off they scuttled again. This was too much for the visitor. "Good-bye," said he, "I'm off. You live in the lap of luxury, I can see, but you are surrounded by dangers; whereas at home I can enjoy my simple dinner of roots and corn in peace."
It's got a great moral to it... but of course for children they make it easier to understand. In this particular version that we have, the county mouse invites his cousin from the city to stay with him. His cousin, the town mouse doesn't think that life in the country is very exciting. "After dinner, they sat and talked. But before long, the town mouse began to long for some excitement. Finally he could not stand the quiet any longer. 'Doesn't anything ever happen around here?' he asked. "Life in the country is so dull! In the city, it's not like this at all. Why, something exciting is always happening! And there is more food than you can imagine!" And so he invites the country mouse back to the city with him to see what
LIFE really is. While in the city, the country mouse got to dine on fine foods... but he had to run and hide from home owners and a big scary cat. My favorite part of the book is the end, when the country mouse says to the town mouse... "Life in the city is not for me. You may call it exciting, but I call it frightening! And I would rather eat crumbs in a peaceful place than risk my life for a banquet."... and he went back to his quiet home in the country.
Whoever thinks country life is dull never dated a guy with a four wheeler, a mud truck, a camper, a huntin' rifle, a frog giggin' boat, and a big ol' sky full of beautiful bright stars!! They've never eaten a freshly cut watermelon on the banks of a cool river after swimmin' all afternoon and they've surely never been to a fish fry or church potluck!!
