---
title: At last the Mice kept so closely to their dens, that the Cat saw he… — The Aesop for Children · tree and pragmatics
description: At last the Mice kept so closely to their dens, that the Cat saw he would have to use his wits well to catch one. Who acts: last Mice, Cat. A sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cat and the Old Rat, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/131/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Aesop for Children](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/) / [The Cat and the Old Rat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/131/) / 3

# The Aesop for Children, The Cat and the Old Rat, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last the Mice kept so closely to their dens, that the Cat saw he would have to use his wits well to catch one.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** last Mice, Cat · **What happens:** keep, see, have, use, catch · **To what, where:** wits, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, The Cat and the Old Rat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (last Mice, Cat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg19994:131:3
# text = At last the Mice kept so closely to their dens, that the Cat saw he would have to use his wits well to catch one.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	Mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	dens	den	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	Cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	use	use	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	wits	wit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
23	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	20	advmod	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **keep** | past | the last Mice |  |  |  |  | to claws's dens; closely *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** | past | the Cat |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **have** | would | Cat |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **use** | to-infinitive | Cat *not said here* | Cat's wits |  |  |  | well *property* | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wit=Patient |
| 5 | **catch** | to-infinitive | Cat *not said here* | one |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop, Project Gutenberg book 19994 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/131/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/131/4/)
- ↑ back to [The Cat and the Old Rat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/131/)