A Brother's Soul

I've been fixing walls in a big empty house, and today I found this mouse & trap in the kitchen, on a day wen I took very few pictures.

I somehow think that things would be better if this task of getting rid of mice were left to cats. Not less cruel perhaps, but there would be less human involvement. I suppose that would make me feel better.

I wish I could say more, but I cannot! That's why we have poets, and google to summon them on a whim.

Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find ;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.

That's from "The Mouse's Petition" by Anna Laetitia Aikin (1773).
Here is the whole poem.