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HOW DO YOU EAT AN ELEPHANT?Once upon a time there was a mouse named Strauss who lived in a little bakery in a littlevillage in a little country. Strauss lived a good life by mouse standards, and mice onlyhave three standards. One, get enough to eat. Two, find a safe place to live, and three,make enough friends that you’re not lonely but not so many that you’re overwhelmed.Strauss had as many friends as he cared to have, but he didn’t have to share the bakerywith any of them on account of they were all afraid of the baker who had a reputation for swatting mice. It’s not that the baker was a mean person, but he did have a business torun after all, and it wouldn’t do to have mice nibbling holes in the treats you’re trying tosell. The baker was well aware of Strauss to be sure, but since Strauss left the baker’sgoods alone and only ate the crumbs that fell on the floor the baker left him alone inreturn.Even though Strauss had everything he needed, he still had big dreams…big
mouse
dreams that is. He longed to eat an entire bowl of pudding, or lick all the frosting off of acake or suck the filling out of an entire tray of jelly doughnuts. Any one of those featswould make him the envy of all the mice in the village, and the stories of his conquestwould inspire future generations of mice children. In fact, it just so happened that thesewere the things Strauss was dreaming about when he was woken up one morning by acommotion in the front of the bakery.Still half asleep but curious, Strauss left his little mouse bed to investigate and wassurprised to see a large group of children crowding around the center table in the diningarea. Strauss crept along the wall until he found an angle where he could see what exactlyall the fuss was about, and when he finally caught sight of it he let out a little mouse gasp.The baker had stayed up all night making a chocolate elephant the size of a large pumpkin. It was the most wonderful and delicious thing any mouse had ever seen.In and instant Strauss forgot all about pudding, frosting and even doughnuts.
This
was hisdream come true. He was so happy he could have cried until he remembered that hecouldn’t eat the food on display or else he wouldn’t be able to stay in the bakeryanymore. When Strauss realized that he was heartbroken.But just then the group of children, who were all jostling each other to be at the front of the circle, lurched forward and bumped hard against the table. Then everybody froze asthe elephant teetered back and forth once, twice, three times before tipping over andfalling to the floor.When it hit the ground its trunk broke off along with two of its legs, and wide crack splitright down the middle of its back. It was the baker who ended the silence with an angryshout that sent all of the children scurrying out of the bakery like mice running from analley cat.The baker knelt down and fumbled with the pieces of the broken elephant. He tried to putthem back into place, but the pieces wouldn’t stay together. So the baker piled them back onto the tray his masterpiece had fallen off of and started to carry it towards the garbage
 
can. To Strauss’s surprise though, the baker only took two steps towards the garbage andstopped. He shifted his feet a few times as if he couldn’t decide which direction hewanted them to take him. Then he walked straight towards the hole in the wall that led toStrauss’s den, knelt down and sat the plate right in front of it.Strauss watched the baker walk slowly back to the kitchen, and when the kitchen door shut behind him Strauss turned his gaze back to the elephant….the elephant the baker hadgiven to him. Strauss was sad for the baker’s loss, but then again, the baker could alwaysmake another elephant. In fact, he was probably in the kitchen this minute preparing theingredients for a new one. For Strauss though, this was a once in a lifetime dream cometrue.Strauss raced to the elephant, leapt on its trunkless head and buried his face in the deep,delicious chocolate. He ate and ate and ate and ate until he couldn’t eat anymore. Then hefell asleep right there on the platter, exhausted from eating so much chocolate. When hewoke up he tried eating some more, but there wasn’t any room in his stomach.Strauss spent the rest of the day in his bed recovering from his battle with the elephant.As he lay there he thought about how impossible it would be to eat the entire elephant. Of course, if he didn’t it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Life would still go on, but thiswas his personal dream and his shot at greatness. If he gave up and let the opportunity pass by him he would have to live with that the rest of his life. With these thoughts inmind Strauss decided he was going to eat the entire elephant no matter how much work ittook.Over the next few days Strauss went back to the elephant and ate and ate and ate until hecouldn’t eat anymore. Then he rested until he could eat some more and went back and ateand ate and ate again. The baker noticed what the mouse was doing and would make it a point to stop by every once and a while to check on his progress, but the baker wasn’t theonly one to notice. Eventually the customers began to notice as well and would come towatch him. Then the rest of the mice in the village noticed how many people werecoming to the bakery, and they came to watch the spectacle as well, but they didn’t goinside because they were still afraid of the baker.In no time Strauss was the biggest attraction in town. The newspaper even printed a storyon him, and after that people came from other villages to see the mouse who was tryingto eat an elephant. People and mice began making bets as to whether or not Strauss coulddo it. Some people believed in him, and some people said he was a fool and his dreamwas impossible.Strauss certainly had shown strength and determination, but he was only just finishedeating the head when his strength and determination began to fade. He had been workingvery hard, but he wasn’t making the progress he thought he would have by now. Despitethe early support he received the other mice were starting to doubt him, and he found thisvery discouraging. At any rate, he just didn’t know if he had the will power to finish sucha daunting task. So as the days went by he ate less and less until he stopped eating at all.
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