Chapter 165
Hard pressed by the hounds, a stag was driven out of his cover and bolted in terror over the fields. Blind through fear, he took refuge in a farmyard and hid himself in an ox stall, which happened to be open. As he was trying to conceal himself under some straw, an ox asked, “Don’t you know that it’s certain death if you stay here?”
“Just don’t betray me,” said the stag, “and I’ll be off again at my first opportunity.”
Toward evening the herdsman came to feed the cattle, but did not notice the stag. The other farm servants came in and out of the barn, and the stag remained safe. Then, after the foreman passed though, everything seemed all right. So the stag now felt quite secure and began to thank the oxen for their silence and hospitality.
“Wait awhile,” said one of them. “We really wish you well, but there’s another person that may give you trouble, one with a hundred eyes. If he should happen to come this way, I fear that your life will still be in jeopardy.”
While he was speaking, the master, having finished his supper, made the rounds to see that everything was safe for the night, for he thought that his cattle had not been looking as well as they should be.
When he went up to the rack, he asked his servants, “Why is there so little fodder here? Why isn’t there more straw?” Then he added, “I wonder how long it would take to sweep out those cobwebs?”
As he began prying and looking here, there, and everywhere, he caught sight of the stag’s antlers jutting out from the straw, and he immediately called in his servants, who seized the poor beast.
Nothing escapes the Master’s eye.
