Friday, April 25, 2008

The mousetrap

I am hoping that I have found the author of the following prose so that I may give proper honor to the right person.

"The mouse and the trap
Sis Katibah

Friday, March 28, 2008

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

It was a mousetrap. So, retreating to the farmyard, he proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked. "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."

He turned to the lamb who 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 who said, "Wow, Mr Mouse. Im sorry for you, but its no skin off my nose." The mouse turned back dejected.

That 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 that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. She was rushed to the hospital and returned with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But her sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the lamb. Still the farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came to her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for every guest. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

Mutmainnaa

3 comments:

Lizzie Woolley said...

I'm trying to think how that story can apply in our every day lives or even what's the moral to it; however, I'm coming up with a blank.

Mir said...

Thanks for revealing your confusion on this story, Lizzie..

If you look at what happened in the tale, the mouse's problem was ignored by the other animals since they felt that it wasn't important to them. Later on, as the events unfolded, the other animals were severely affected by the mouse's problem.

This little inspirational story is usually accompanied with the following words:

"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 and help one another."

I do not know who wrote this explanation, but they did a great job.

Lizzie Woolley said...

Thanks for explaining it to me.