"What food might
this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a
mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard,
the mouse proclaimed the warning.
"There is a
mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and
scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a
grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me... I cannot be bothered
by it."
The mouse turned to the
pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap
in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but
said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about
it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the
cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in
the house!"
The cow said, "Wow,
Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
So, the mouse returned
to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound
was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap
catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed
to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous
snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the
farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home
with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the
farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness
continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To
feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did
not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the
cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it
all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you
hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember --
when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
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