it pays

A mouse ran into her family's hole, frightened for her life.

'There's a cat outside!' she said to her father.

Her father said, 'Don't worry about that.' 

As they listened to the cat breathing just inches away,
 the father mouse positioned himself by the side of the hole and yelled: 

'Woof, Woof, Woof!' 

The cat took off, and the father mouse said, 

'See, I told you it pays to learn a second language.' 

–adapted from a story by Kenneth Pike, 
American linguist and anthropologist