At 3:00 a.m., everyone in town was asleep. Then, at 3:30 a.m., an alarm woke everyone up. However, since people tend to procrastinate, even at the most important of times, it wasn’t until 4:00 a.m. that they went outside to see what the commotion was about. The mayor gathered everyone in the town square and looked through his spyglass into the distance. It was just as he feared. 

“It’s a worm!” He said to the crowd. They looked at him, befuddled. 

“What kind of worm?” Asked the doctor.

“A big one!” Said the mayor, “headed this way!” The crowd gasped.

“How big?” Asked the blacksmith. The mayor looked again through the spyglass and yelped in fear. 

“Quite big,” he said. The crowd gasped again. 

“So what do we do?” Asked one of the proper ladies. The mayor was at a loss for words.

The hunter stepped forward. “We need to build a trap for the beast, of course!” He said, and everyone thought that was a good idea. So, they dismantled everything and used the materials to build a trap well outside of town. However, they realized that the trap would need bait. 

“How about him?” Asked one of the midwives, holding up a fat baby. “The mum’s got five already, surely she could spare one?” Everyone, including the mother, agreed that was obviously the best course of action. So they placed the baby in the trap and waited in the town square. Then, the mayor looked through the glass and gasped. 

“Egads!” He said, “the worm has slipped past the trap! It’s so close now!” Everyone talked in hushed tones until the baker stepped forward. 

“To stop the worm,” he said, “we must give it something tastier than us to eat!” All of the townspeople applauded this idea, and forgot the trap promptly. They gathered all the food they could find and had the baker make it into a jumbo dinner. Then, they set it on a giant plate and rang the dinner bell before running back to the town square. 

“That smells delicious,” said a ragamuffin. 

“Quiet you!” Said the pastor, and everyone agreed that yes, the ragamuffin should be quiet or else receive a stern walloping. The mayor looked through the spyglass and cried out in despair.

“The worm’s tastes are too particular!” He wailed, “it craves our flesh only!” The townspeople began to weep. Finally, the pastor stepped forward.

“This is a test!” He bellowed, “we must meet the worm without fear!” Everyone agreed that this was definitely the best plan, and so they did just that. The people stood in the square and waited. When night came, there were no houses to sleep in, so they waited instead. And when they were hungry, there was no food, so they kept on waiting. Eventually, starting with the children, the people starved to death right there in the square. But if the mayor had simply turned the spyglass around, he would have seen that the worm wasn’t big at all. It was only stuck to the lense.