A Stag, drinking from a crystal spring, saw himself mirrored in
the clear water. He greatly admired the graceful arch of his
antlers, but he was very much ashamed of his spindling legs.
"How can it be," he sighed, "that I should be cursed with such
legs when I have so magnificent a crown."
At that moment he scented a panther and in an instant was bounding
away through the forest. But as he ran his wide-spreading antlers
caught in the branches of the trees, and soon the Panther overtook
him. Then the Stag perceived that the legs of which he was so
ashamed would have saved him had it not been for the useless
ornaments on his head.
_We often make much of the ornamental and despise the useful._