J. H. Stickney

The One-Eyed Doe

A DOE, blind in one eye, used to graze as near as she could to the edge of a cliff, so that she might keep her blind eye to the water, while with the other she kept watch against the approach of hunters or hounds on the shore.


[Illustration]

Some boatmen sailing by saw her standing thus on the edge of a cliff, and finding that she did not perceive their approach, they came very close and taking aim, shot her.

Finding herself wounded, she said, "O unhappy creature that I am, to take such care as I did against the dangers of the land, and then, after all, to find this seashore, to which I had come for safety, so much more perilous!"