<P> In all versions of the original fable, much is made of the poor fare upon which the country mouse subsists . Dried (grey) peas and bacon are frequently mentioned and it is these two that the early 19th century author Richard Scrafton Sharpe uses in a repetitive refrain to his lyrical treatment of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse". He was the author of Old friends in a new dress--or Familiar fables in verse, which went through different editions from 1807 onwards . The stories are told in song measures rather than narrative, and it was in a later edition that this retelling appeared . </P> <P> A similar story appears among the fables of Bidpai as "The Lean Cat and the Fat Cat". It is related that' There was once a poor, lean old woman, who lived in a tiny, tumbled - down house, with a cat as poor and as lean as herself . This cat had never tasted a bit of bread, and had come no nearer a mouse than to find its tracks in the dust .' A sleek, plump cat boasts to her of how it feasts at the king's table and invites her to come and join in next day . The poor woman advises her pet to be content with its lot . Unheeding, the lean cat sets off for the palace . Owing to its infestation by cats, however, the king had ordered that any caught there were to be put to death . The lean cat dies, regretting that it had not listened to the old woman's wise advice . </P> <P> Beatrix Potter retold the story in The Tale of Johnny Town - Mouse (1918). In this she inverted the order of the visits, with the country mouse going to the city first, being frightened by a cat and disliking the food . Returning the visit later, the town mouse is frightened of the rain, the lawnmower and the danger of being stepped on by cows . The story concludes with the reflection that tastes differ . A segment from the tale was incorporated into the children's ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter, danced by the Royal Ballet with choreography by Frederick Ashton (1971). The ballet was subsequently performed onstage in 1992 and 2007 . </P> <P> In 1927 the story was made into a French silent film, with puppet animation by the director Wladyslaw Starewicz, under the title Le Rat de Ville et le Rat des Champs . In this updated version, the urban rat drives out of Paris in his car to visit his cousin on the farm . They return to the city and visit a nightclub but their revels end in pandemonium with the arrival of a cat . Recognizing that city life is too hectic for him, the country rat prefers to dream of his urban adventure from the safety of his home . The American equivalent was the Silly Symphonies cartoon The Country Cousin (1936), in which the country mouse hikes along the railroad track to visit his cousin in the city . The main action takes place on the supper table and is governed by the unexplained need for silence . When the reason for this is revealed as the cat, the cousin escapes into the street, only to face the worse hazards of the traffic . </P>

Moral lesson of the town mouse and the country mouse