The Stag in the Ox-Stall
A Stag,
roundly chased by the
hounds and blinded by fear to the danger he was running into, took
shelter
in a farmyard and hid himself in a shed among the oxen.
An Ox gave
him this kindly
warning: "O unhappy creature! why should you thus, of your own accord,
incur destruction and trust yourself in the house of your enemy?'
The Stag
replied: "Only allow
me, friend, to stay where I am, and I will undertake to find some
favorable
opportunity of effecting my escape."
At the
approach of the evening
the herdsman came to feed his cattle, but did not see the Stag; and
even
the farm-bailiff with several laborers passed through the shed and
failed
to notice him.
The Stag,
congratulating
himself on his safety, began to express his sincere thanks to the Oxen
who had kindly helped him in the hour of need. One of them again
answered
him:
"We indeed
wish you well,
but the danger is not over. There is one other yet to pass through the
shed, who has as it were a hundred eyes, and until he has come and
gone,
your life is still in peril."
At that
moment the master
himself entered, and having had to complain that his oxen had not been
properly fed, he went up to their racks and cried out: "Why is there
such
a scarcity of fodder? There is not half enough straw for them to lie
on.
Those lazy fellows have not even swept the cobwebs away."
While he
thus examined everything
in turn, he spied the tips of the antlers of the Stag peeping out of
the
straw. Then summoning his laborers, he ordered that the Stag should be
seized and killed.
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