mongoose parable #6

Evening came and the villagers gathered, in fact they had been gathering all day. The mongoose watched, scribbled and calculated and did not do much more. The villagers mumbled to each other. The charmer, becoming distracted with their mumbling brought out his turtledove and cobra. They played freely with each other. The people watched with listless glee as the dove flitted here and there and the cobra slithered here and there. Lists of numbers and people in fancy cloths came to see the charmer and his workers that day. The workers began to get messy in their building as the charmer grew more and more tired. This night he even forgot to put his pets back into their cages. The mongoose watched and waited for the morrow in the hopes of an improved morale. The scribbling became more intense although there was little light to write by.
January 10