You see how foolish it was of the stag to =boast= about his fine horns; and we are just as foolish when =we= boast of anything that we have, or of anything we can do.
Boasting often leads to untruth, as in (Story Lesson 11) "The Three Feathers". It is always vulgar to pretend that we are better than our neighbours, and people who boast generally try to make one believe that they =are= cleverer or richer or better than somebody else. Let us be like the modest violet, who hides her beauty, rather than be boastful and foolish, as the stag was.
A little girl wandered away from home one morning and got lost in a wood. She tried in vain to find the way home again, but she could not, and then she sat down and cried, for she was so tired, and oh! =so= hungry. She thought of the many crusts of bread and pieces of meat that she had often left on her plate at home, and how glad she would have been to eat them now. It was evening when her friends found her, and took her safely home; we will hope that she remembered that hungry day in the woods, and did not waste any more pieces of bread afterwards.
If you think of the many poor people who have scarcely enough to eat, you will see how wrong it is to waste anything. When we have more than we need, let us give it to those who have not enough, and never forget that
You will hear of a great king (in Story Lesson 90) who had a throne of ivory overlaid with gold. When you are old enough to read the words he wrote (Proverbs) you will find that he always kept his eyes wide open and noticed things.
As the king was taking a walk one day, he passed by a vineyard, which is another name for a grape-garden, and he noticed that the wall was broken down. He looked farther, and saw that the vines were all trailing on the ground, instead of being tied up, and worse still, they were all grown over with nettles and thorns--the beautiful grape vines that give such rich, delicious fruit. "How is this?" thought the king, and he began to consider. "Ah!" said he, "this vineyard belongs to the man who likes 'a little sleep,' 'a little slumber,' and who would rather fold his hands and go to sleep again than use them to work in his garden. And what will be the end of it all? He will soon be poor, and have nothing to eat, while his lovely grapes which would have sold for money if he had looked after them, lie there buried and spoilt by the nettles and thorns."