The Stag In The Ox-Stall
Aesop Fable: 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 farmbailiff
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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