So many rats had been dispatched by one cruel cat that scarcely any more remained. The few survivors dared not leave their holes, and so they also starved. “This cat torments us like the very devil,” they complained.
One day the cat went out to seek a mate—and found one, as the rats surmised by all the lovestruck caterwauling in the street outside. This respite gave them time to hold a meeting and discuss what should be done.
Their leader, speaking first, proposed a plan: “I say we hang, as soon as possible, a bell around the devil’s neck, so that we’ll hear him coming when he’s on the prowl, and can escape to safety underground. There’s no alternative solution I can see.”
Unanimously they agreed, and warmly praised the plan. The only hitch was: who would bell the cat?
“Not I,” said one; “No way,” another said; “I wouldn’t know where to begin,” said yet a third.
And so the matter soon was dropped, and nothing done.
Most human meetings are likewise adjourned.
Deliberators everywhere abound; but doers are more difficultly found.