Explore "The City Rat and the Country Rat" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A city rat, one night, / Did, with a civil stoop, / A country rat invite / To end a turtle soup.
Upon a Turkey carpet / They found the table spread, / And sure I need not harp it / How well the fellows fed.
The entertainment was / A truly noble one; / But some unlucky cause / Disturb'd it when begun.
It was a slight rat-tat, / That put their joys to rout; / Out ran the city rat; / His guest, too, scamper'd out.
Our rats but fairly quit, / The fearful knocking ceased. / 'Return we,' cried the cit, / To finish there our feast.
'No,' said the rustic rat; / 'To-morrow dine with me. / I'm not offended at / Your feast so grand and free, --
'For I've no fare resembling; / But then I eat at leisure, / And would not swap, for pleasure / So mix'd with fear and trembling. '[1]
[1]: Horace, _Satires_, II. 6: also in Aesop.