A mouse looked through the crack
in the wall to see the farmer and
his wife open a package.

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.

We are all involved in this journey
called life. We must keep an eye out
for one another and make an extra
effort to encourage one another.