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| a wee mouse looked through a crack in a farmhouse wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. As he watched, he was alarmed to discover that inside the package was a mousetrap, which he knew would eventually mean his death. What was he to do? Running out to the farmyard, he sounded the alarm to the first animal he saw, a hen. "There’s a mousetrap in the house! There’s a mousetrap in the house!" he said. |
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| The hen clucked and scratched, raised her head, and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can see this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I have a family to feed, and I cannot be bothered by your problem." Next the mouse turned to the pig and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house! Please help me." |
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| The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but it’s time for my daily mud bath, so there’s nothing I can do about it." So 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, "Gee, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but I’ve got other things to do. Besides, a mousetrap can’t hurt me." The mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected. That very night, the loud sound of a mousetrap slamming down on its prey startled the farmer and his wife. The wife rushed to be sure that the mouse had been caught. In the darkness, she could not see that a poisonous snake with a suspicious bulge around its middle was caught by the tail in the mousetrap. Angry and in pain, the snake bit the farmer's wife, injecting venom deeply into her body. That was The moral: You might think that a problem doesn't concern you, but when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. |
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