OT: A Mouse Story:
> 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.
AI
