Seven Blind Mice
By Ed Young
One day, seven blind mice
were surprised to
find a strange SOMETHING
by their pond.
"What is it?" they cried,
and they all ran home.
On Monday,
Red Mouse went first to find out.
"It's a pillar," he said.
No one believed him.
On Tuesday,
Green Mouse set out.
He was the second to go.
"It's a snake," he said.
"No," said Yellow Mouse on Wednesday.
"It's a spear."
He was the third in turn.
The fourth was Purple Mouse.
He went on Thursday.
"It's a great cliff," he said.
Orange Mouse went on Friday,
the fifth to go.
"It's a fan!" he cried.
"I felt it move."
The sixth to go was Blue Mouse.
He went on Saturday and said,
"It's nothing but a rope."
But the others didn't agree.
They began to argue.
"A snake!"
"A rope!"
"A fan!"
"A cliff!"
Until on Sunday, White Mouse,
The seventh mouse,
went to the pond.
When she came upon the SOMETHING,
she ran up on one side,
and she ran down the other.
She ran across the top
and from end to end.
"Ah," said White Mouse.
"Now, I see.
The SOMETHING is
as sturdy as a pillar,
supple as a snake,
wide as a cliff,
sharp as a spear,
breezy as a fan,
stringy as a rope,
but altogether the SOMETHING is...
an elephant!"
And when the other mice
ran up one side
and down the other,
across the SOMETHING
from end to end,
they agreed.
Now they saw, too.
The mouse moral
Knowing in part may make a fine tale,
but wisdom comes from seeing the whole.