Reading Part B "La Fontaine"

Little mice must always beware of cats- even if they are asleep (Image Source)

These stories are more retellings of the classics of Aesop's Fables, as translated from the French poetry into English verse.
In the first poem, a brave young mouse goes out by himself to explore the world a bit.  From his sheltered and naive perspective, he comes across two different creatures, one of them harsh and terrifying and the other soft and gentle.  The scary one had great arms that beat and changed the wind, and a sharp mouth that looked as if it could pierce the heart of the poor little mouse in one strike.  It had scaly, clawed feat with fearful talons, and a great red chunk of what looked like raw meat hanging from its head.  Mouse ran as fast as he could from the frightful creature until he came upon another one, sleeping.  It was smooth and soft, with gentle curves and covered in sleek fur.  It was warm and had small paws that did not seem threatening at all to the little mouse.  He ran back to his mother and recounted all that had happened.  His mother, being much wiser than her little son, told him that the great monster he had seen was nothing more than a rooster, and that it would do no harm to the mice.  But the other creature was a cat, the most dangerous enemy that they knew.  Little Mouse learned his lesson then that day that one cannot always judge based on outward appearances.
The next poem was a well known tale of the cat and the bell.  Essentially, a council of rats (or mice) decide that the best way to avoid being eaten by a certain cat is to hang a bell around its neck.  They are quite excited by the prospect of stopping the killings.  The only problem is that there is no one willing to actually execute the master plan that they have.  Great lines from the poem here:

To argue or refute

Wise counsellors abound;

The man to execute

Is harder to be found.

Next up we have the tragic poem of a bored and earth-bound turtle who is helped by two generous ducks who fly her around the town.  She is holding onto a stick  with her mouth which is held in turn by the two ducks.  They give her a grand time touring the countryside, and people cry out "look at the tortoise queen."  She was in reality, a great idiot, unfortunately, because she replied, "yes, yes I am."  Doing so made her lose her grip on the stick and she fell down to her untimely death.

Story Source: Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks by Jean La Fontaine