A Lynx was bragging to a Mole about how gifted he was by comparison. Mole heard a noise and sunk into the earth while a hunter killed the Lynx. Ooops!
Pay attention at all times.
JBR Collection
Under the covert of a thick wood, at the foot of a tree, as a Lynx lay whetting his teeth and waiting for his prey, he espied a Mole half buried under a hillock of her own raising. “Alas, poor creature,” said the Lynx, “how much I pity thee! Surely, Jupiter has been very unkind, to debar thee from the light of day which rejoices the whole creation. Thou art certainly not above half alive, and it would be doing thee a service to put an end to so unanimated a being.” “I thank you for your kindness,” replied the Mole, “but I think I have full as much vivacity as my state and circumstances require. For the rest, I am perfectly well contented with the faculties which Jupiter has allotted me, who, I am sure, wants not our direction in distributing his gifts with propriety. I have not, ’tis true, your piercing eyes, but I have ears which answer all my purposes fully as well. Hark! for example, I am warned by a noise which I hear behind you, to fly from danger.” So saying, he shrunk into the earth, while a javelin from the arm of a hunter pierced the quick-sighted Lynx to the heart.