A long time ago, a man in the state of Wei did not take a fancy to anything in the world, except keeping cats as pets. The man kept over a hundred cats which kept his house clear of mice. Even the rodents in his neighbourhood were not spared.
Soon due to a shortage of their favourite food supply, the cats ran all over the place, disturbing the country folks. The owner had no choice but to feed them with meat, day in and day out. The cats were happy with the meat supplied by their master, so they behaved themselves.
From then onwards, one generation after another of the cats were ignorant about mice. Whenever they felt hungry, sumptuous meat was just a meow away.After their meals, they just whiled away the time.
A scholars home in the Southern city was plagued by a pack of mice. The little creatures ran around nib-bling at things and making noise all day long, much to the annoyance of the scholar.
Once, a mouse fell into a vat. The scholar hurried to borrow a cat from the cat-loving man. Unfortunately,the cat he borrowed had never seen a mouse before.When the mouse in the vat pricked its ears up, stared with its protruding black eyes, flickered its crimson whiskers, and made those squeaking sounds, it looked like a monster to the cat. The cat wandered around the vat without any sign of wanting to catch the mouse. The scholar was so angry that he pushed the cat into the vat.The cat was very frightened and he could only shout at the mouse.
After some time, the mouse took the daring step of biting the cats leg which made the cat leap out of the vat.
古时候，卫国有一个人，对世上所有的东西，都不怎么喜欢，却只爱养猫。
猫是以捕食老鼠为生的动物。他养了一百多只猫，不但把家里的老鼠捕光了，连左邻右合的老鼠也差不多捕尽了。
养的猫多了，家里和附近一带的老鼠都被吃得一千二净，猫便没什么好吃的，就到处乱窜乱叫，闹得家里一时一刻都难以安宁。
猫的主人只好买些肉给它们吃，每天都是如此。猫有肉吃，就不再闹了，乖乖地和主人生活在一起。
这样一来，这些猫生下的子子孙孙，因为都是用肉喂养大的，竟然不知道世上还有老鼠这种动物，只要饿了就叫，一叫就能得到主人给的肉吃，吃饱了就悠闲自在，嬉戏玩耍。
南城外有个读书人很讨厌老鼠，家里的老鼠成群结队地东跳西窜，到处乱咬东西，又吱吱喳喳地吵个不停，闹得这个读书人厌烦不已。
有一次，一只老鼠掉进一个大缸里，读书人赶紧到这户养猫人家借了一只猫回来。那只猫从来就没见过老鼠这种动物。当猫看见缸里的老鼠竖着两只小耳朵，黑溜溜的眼珠向外突出，嘴边上长着赤红的硬胡子，并吱吱地叫个不停时，心想真是遇见了怪物。猫沿着缸沿儿走来走去，却不敢跳下去捕捉。读书人生气了，把它推进缸中。猫害怕极了，对着老鼠大声叫唤起来。
过了好一会儿，老鼠也猜想它没什么别的本事，就放肆地去咬它的脚。那猫用尽全身力气，连蹦带跳，从缸里跳了出来。
P56-59
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