44 FAVOURITE FABLES.

MORAL.
The man who to his lot’s resigned
True happiness is sure to find;
While envy ne’er can mend the ill,
But makes us feel it keener still.

—oj—

FABLE XXXIV.
THE STAG IN THE OX-STALL.

A Sraa, roused from his thick covert'in the midst of the
forest, and driven hard by the hounds, made towards a farm-
house, and, seeing the door of an ox-stall open, entered
therein, and hid himself under a heap of straw. One of the
oxen, turning his head about, asked him what he meant by
venturing himself in such a place, where he was sure to meet
his doom. ‘Ah!’’ said the Stag, ‘“‘if you will but be so
good as to favour me with your concealment, I hope I shall
do well enough; I intend to make off again the first
opportunity.”’

Well, he stayed there till towards night; in came the
ox-man with a bundle of fodder, and never saw him. In
short, all the servants of the farm came and went, and not
one of them suspected anything of the matter. Nay, the
bailiff himself came, according to form, and looked in, but
walked away, no wiser than the rest. Upon this the Stag,