, and
what great need we stand in of them, upon several occasions; but,
for my part, I find them so very slender and unsightly that I had
as lief have none at all."

While he was giving himself these airs, he was alarmed with the
noise of some huntsmen and a pack of hounds that had been just
laid on upon the scent, and were making towards him.

[Illustration: THE STAG AT THE POOL.]

Away he flees in some consternation, and, bounding nimbly over
the plain, threw dogs and men at a vast distance behind him.
After which, taking a very thick copse, he had the ill-fortune to
be entangled by his horns in a thicket, where he was held
fast, till the hounds came in and pulled him down. Finding now
how it was likely to go with him, in the pangs of death, he is
said to have uttered these words:--"Unhappy creature that I am! I
am too late convinced that what I prided myself in has been the
cause of my undoing, and what I so much disliked was the only
thing that could have saved me."

MORAL.

Beauty often becomes a snare and ruin, while solid virtue, though
unadorned, gains respect. The latter, too, will mature with age,
while the former will surely fade.

FABLE LXVII.

THE OLD SWALLOWS AND THE YOUNG BIRDS.

A SWALLOW, observing a husbandman employed in sowing hemp, called
the little Birds together, and informed them what the farmer was
about. He told them that hemp was the material from which the
nets, so fatal to the feathered race, were composed; and advised
them unanimously to join in picking it up, in order to prevent
the consequences.

The Birds, either disbelieving his information, or neglecting his
advice, gave themselves no trouble about the matter. In a little
time, the hemp appeared above the ground. The friendly Swallow
again addressed himself to them--told them it was not yet too
late, provided they would immediately set about the work, before
the seeds had taken too deep root. But, they still rejecting his
advice, he forsook their society; repaired, for safety, to towns
and cities; there built his habitation, and kept his residence.

One day, as he was skimming along the streets, he happened to see
a great number of these very Birds, imprisoned in a cage, on the
shoulders of a bird-catcher. "Unhappy wretches!" said he, "you
now feel the punishment of your former neglect. But those who,
having no foresight of their own, despise the wholesome
admonition of their friends, deserve the mischiefs whi