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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