Aesop's Fables (Joseph Jacobs)
Jacobs 25. The Hart and the Hunter (Perry
74)
The Hart was once drinking from a pool and admiring the noble figure
he made there. "Ah," said he, "where can you see such noble
horns as these, with such antlers! I wish I had legs more worthy to bear
such a noble crown; it is a pity they are so slim and slight." At
that moment a Hunter approached and sent an arrow whistling after him.
Away bounded the Hart, and soon, by the aid of his nimble legs, was nearly
out of sight of the Hunter; but not noticing where he was going, he passed
under some trees with branches growing low down in which his antlers were
caught, so that the Hunter had time to come up. "Alas! alas!"
cried the Hart:
"We often despise what is most useful to us."
The
Fables of Aesop, by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by
Richard Heighway (1894). The page images come from Google
Books. The digitized text comes from Project
Gutenberg. You can purchase this inexpensive Dover edition, The
Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs from amazon.com.
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