Aesop's Fables

#145 The Hart and the Vine

A Hart, hard pressed in the case, hid himself beneath the large leaves of a Vine.

The huntsmen, in their haste, overshot the place of his concealment.

Supposing all danger to have passed, the Hart 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 struck it.

The Hart, at the point of death groaned, "I am rightly served, for I should not have maltreated this Vine that saved me."