Once upon a time, deep in a quiet, mossy forest, there lived a magnificent stag named Silas. Silas had a smooth brown coat, large gentle eyes, and a very grand way of walking.
One warm afternoon, after leaping over fallen logs and trotting through the ferns, Silas grew thirsty. He wandered down a hidden path until he came upon a crystal-clear spring. The water was so calm and so still that it worked exactly like a great glass mirror.
Silas lowered his head for a cool drink. But as he leaned over, he caught sight of his own reflection — and he stopped drinking, and stared.
Rising up from his head was a set of enormous branching antlers. They twisted and turned like the boughs of an ancient oak, gleaming in the dappled sunlight.
“Oh, my,” Silas whispered, quite mesmerised. “Look at those marvellous antlers. They look like a royal crown. I must be the grandest and handsomest creature in the whole forest.”
The Disappointing Discovery
Silas puffed out his chest and admired the curve of his crown from one side and then the other. But then his eyes drifted further down into the clear water, and he saw the reflection of his four legs.
His smile vanished. His ears drooped.
His legs were long, and thin, and spindly. They looked like four fragile sticks pushed into the ground.
“Oh, how embarrassing,” Silas groaned, shaking his head. “How can it be that nature has burdened me with such ugly, skinny legs, when I carry such a magnificent crown on my head? My antlers belong to a king — and my legs look like twigs!”
He spent the next few minutes sighing over them and feeling deeply ashamed, wishing with all his heart that his legs were as thick and as beautiful as his antlers.
A Sudden Danger
SNAP!
A dry twig broke in the bushes nearby.
Silas’s long ears shot straight up. He took a quick breath through his nose, testing the breeze — and his heart began to hammer against his ribs. He had caught the sharp, dangerous scent of a hungry panther lurking in the shadows.
Before the panther could spring from the leaves, Silas turned and bounded away.
And those thin, spindly legs he had just been complaining about turned out to be built for pure speed. They flexed like powerful springs, carrying him across the forest floor in great effortless leaps.
Leap! Bound! Swoosh!
He moved like the wind, leaving the heavy panther further and further behind across the open meadow. On flat ground, his legs were saving his life.
Trapped in the Trees
Looking for somewhere safe to hide, Silas sprinted into a dense patch of woodland full of low-hanging branches, thick vines, and tangled oaks.
He did not realise his mistake until it was far too late.
As he darted beneath a low branch, his wide-spreading, beautiful antlers caught fast.
CRACK! TANGLE!
The branches wound themselves around the heavy tines of his crown like wooden ropes. Silas pulled back with all his strength, but his antlers were too wide and too many-branched, and the more he twisted and wriggled, the tighter they held. His quick, trusty legs went on running — and his head stayed locked exactly where it was.
Behind him, the soft heavy footsteps of the panther grew louder and louder. Thump… thump… thump.
And as the panther’s shadow fell across the grass, poor Silas understood the terrible truth at last. The thin, ugly legs he had been so ashamed of had carried him swiftly out of danger. The grand, beautiful antlers he had boasted about were the very things that had trapped him.
The Moral of the Story: We often make a great deal of what is merely ornamental, and think little of what is useful. It is easy to care about the shiny things that look good from the outside. But real worth usually lies in the plain, useful things that help us and protect us every single day.