down the barley, making quite a clear path through it. She
was quite wrong in thinking herself so safe, for that path got her
into very serious trouble.

It so happened that a hunter, whose great delight was to kill wild
creatures, and who was very clever in finding them, noticing every
little thing which could shew him where they had passed by, came
one day into the barley-field. He spied the path directly and cried,
"Ha! ha! Some wild animal has been here; not a very big one; let's
have a look for the footprints!" So he stooped down to the ground,
and very soon saw the marks of pussy's feet. "A cat, I do believe,"
he said to himself, "spoiling the barley she doesn't want to eat
herself. I'll soon pay her out." The hunter waited until the evening
lest the creature should see what he was going to do, and then in the
twilight he set snares all over the barley-field. A snare, you know,
is a string with a slip-knot at the end of it; and if an animal puts
his head or one of his paws into this slip-knot and goes on without
noticing it, the string is pulled tight and the poor creature cannot
get free.

3. Was it right or wrong of the hunter to set the snare?

4. Do you think the cat was wrong to lie in wait for the mouse?

CHAPTER III

Exactly what the hunter expected happened. The cat came as usual to
watch for the mouse, and caught sight of him running across the end of
the path. Puss dashed after him; and just as she thought she really
had got him this time, she found herself caught by the neck, for she
had put her head into one of the snares. She was nearly strangled
and could scarcely even mew. The mouse was so close that he heard the
feeble mew, and in a terrible fright, thinking the cat was after him,
he peeped through the stems of the barley to make sure which way to
run to get away from her. What was his delight when he saw his enemy
in such trouble and quite unable to do him any harm!

Now it so happened that the owl and the lizard were also in the
barley-field, not very far away from the cat, and they too saw the
distress their hated enemy was in. They also caught sight of the little
mouse peeping through the barley; and the owl thought to himself,
"I'll have you, my little friend, now puss cannot do me any harm,"
whilst the lizard darted away into the sunshine, feeling glad that
the cat and the owl were neither of them now likely to trouble their
heads about him. The owl flew quietly to a tree hard by