ful Downy to the
bank; she peeped through the hedge, and saw every thing in the garden
looking very pleasant. So Miss Downy thought she should like to spend
this day in the beautiful shady garden; in she went, and soon found it
as charming as it looked; for the garden abounded in plenty of good
things; there were peas, and beans, and potatoes, and young carrots,
and beds of ripe red strawberries. Downy did nothing but eat and enjoy
herself the whole day, and did not think of returning home that day,
nor for many days afterwards, for she said to herself--'What
occasion is there for me to go back to the meadow, where I have so
much trouble to get food, for here is more than I could ever eat, and
I have no trouble in getting it at all--and I am sure no mischief will
happen to me here!' So she gave no thought of her nice house in the
field, but amused herself by eating all the day long; till she grew
quite fat, and Downy thought she was happier than ever she had been in
the field, and she grew very indolent, for she now began to think that
there was no occasion for her to work, but she said to herself, she
would play all day; and here she shewed herself to be a very simple
little mouse, (as it proved in what befel her). She had been living in
the garden for nearly a month, when one fine sunshiny day, she had
ventured nearer to the house than usual, and was lying reposing
herself in the sun by a clod of dirt, near a rain-water butt, when she
was disturbed by a noise near her, and to her horror she beheld the
black cat with a fine kitten by her side, proceeding down the walk
where she lay; to escape was almost impossible, even the attempt was
vain, and hapless Downy gave herself up for lost. A month back, and
she might have trusted to her own speed for escaping--but, alas! Downy
had so long been used to do nothing but eat and enjoy herself, that
she was no longer able to run as swiftly as she used to do; she dared
not even move a step, and sat in an agony of hopeless despair.

"Downy now lamented her folly in having left her safe retreat in the
meadow: what would she now have given to have been in her own little
house under the mole hill? and she bitterly regretted ever having been
tempted to quit it, for there no cats ever came, and there she had
lived in innocence and happiness, whilst now she was doomed to fall a
victim to the merciless claws of a hungry cat, who would devour her
alive: she lay breathless! not a limb did s