[SOC] Tale of the mouse

[Sam Pick]

 > This is a tale of the mouse that roared but its hearers did not heed.
 > =====================
 > A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his
 > wife opening a package; what food might it contain?
 >
 > He was aghast to discover that it was a mouse trap!
 >
 > Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning,
 > "There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the
 > house."
 >
 > The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said,
 > "Mr. Mouse, I can tell you 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 mouse trap in the house."
 >
 > "I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse," sympathized the pig,
 > "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; be assured that you
 > are in my prayers."
 >
 > The mouse turned to the cow, who replied,
 > "Like wow, Mr. Mouse, a mouse trap; am I in grave danger, Duh?"
 >
 > So the mouse returned to the house
 > , head down and dejected to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.
 >
 > That very night a sound was heard throughout the house,
 > like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife
 > rushed to see what was caught.
 >
 > In the darkness, she did not see that 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.
 >
 > She returned home with a fever.
 > Now 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.
 >
 > His wife's sickness continued so that 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, in fact,
 > she died, and so many people came for her funeral the farmer had the
 > cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.
 >
 > So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem
 > and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least
 > of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
 >
 > And so it may be with Germany, France and Belgium one day...
 >