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Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)257. The Stag at the Pool (Perry 74) 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.'
George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project Gutenberg. Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google Books. |
