Page:Three hundred Aesop's fables (Townshend).djvu/133



A, hard pressed in the chase, hid himself beneath the large leaves of a Vine. The huntsmen, in their haste, overshot the place of his concealment; when the Hart, supposing all danger to have passed, began to nibble the tendrils of the Vine. One of the huntsmen, attracted by the rustling of the leaves, looked back, and, seeing the Hart, shot an arrow from his bow, and killed it. The Hart, at the point of death, groaned out these words, "I am rightly served; for I ought not to have maltreated the Vine that saved me."

A came and said to a Lion, "I do not the least fear you, nor are you stronger than I am. For in what does your strength consist? You can scratch with your