the midday
sun
ha ! I smell mice , ' shrieked the new comer , and dashed through a hole in the roof , from whence it shortly reappeared with a mouse in its claws . `` This sight filled all the fowls with joy ; and as they sat on the edge of the roof in a row , they nudged each other , and remarked , '' ` This has indeed been a happy venture . ' `` For a few days everything went as smoothly as possible , but after a time the mice began to find out that the owl could only see really well at night , that it saw badly by day , and hardly at all when the midday sun was shining through the window into the loft . So they only came out at noon , and then dragged enough corn away into their holes to last them till the following day . `` One night the owl did not catch a single mouse , and so , being very hungry , drove its beak into some hen 's eggs that lay in a corner , and ate them . Finding them more to its taste than the fattest mouse , and much less trouble to catch , henceforth the owl gave up mouse-hunting , and took to egg-poaching .