THE FABLE

A Hart being hard pursued by the hunters, hid himself under the broad leaves of a shady, spreading Vine.

When the hunters had gone by, and given him over for lost, he thought himself quite secure, and began to crop and eat the leaves of the Vine.

The rustling of the branches drew the eyes of the hunters that way, and they shot their arrows there at a venture, and killed the Hart.

In dying, he admitted that he deserved his fate, for his ingratitude in destroying the friend who had so kindly sheltered him in time of danger.