Aesop's Fables
A
STAG overpowered by
heat came to a
spring to drink. Seeing his own
shadow reflected in the water, he greatly admired the
size and
variety of his
horns, but felt angry with himself for having such slender and weak
feet. While he was thus
contemplating himself, a
Lion appeared at the pool and crouched to spring upon him. The Stag immediately took to flight, and
exerting his utmost speed, as long as the
plain was
smooth and
open kept himself easily at a
safe distance from the Lion. But entering a
wood he became
entangled by his horns, and the Lion quickly came up to him and caught him. When too late, he thus
reproached himself: "Woe is me! How I have
deceived myself! These feet which would have saved me I
despised, and I gloried in these antlers which have proved my
destruction." What is most truly
valuable is often
underrated.