The Stag, congratulating himself on his safety, began to express his sincere thanks to the Oxen who had kindly helped him in the
hour of need. One of them again answered him: "We indeed wish you well, but the danger is not over.
Not to let the gold and silver pieces fall through your fingers, or to live in a great house and be waited upon by servants who desert you in the
hour of need. That isn't being rich.
This came into my mind: to play off Panda against Dingaan; it was for such an
hour of need that I had saved Panda alive.
'Now,' thought she to herself, 'no aid of man can be of use to me.' So she went to the sun and said, 'Thou shinest everywhere, on the hill's top and the valley's depth--hast thou anywhere seen my white dove?' 'No,' said the sun, 'I have not seen it; but I will give thee a casket--open it when thy
hour of need comes.'
It is I who ask you to do so; it is I who beg you to do so; it is I who now, in the
hour of need, command you to do so, in the name of M.
This was the man whose advice I had come to ask--who assistance I had confidently counted on in my
hour of need.
"Had I but followed your advice, beautiful Persian," he said, "all this would not have happened, but at least I have this consolation, that I have spent my fortune in the company of friends who will not desert me in an
hour of need. To-morrow I will go to them, and amongst them they will lend me a sum sufficient to start in some business."
Carthoris, seeing him thus, felt a pang of regret that, after all, this man that he had thought so valorous should prove, in the
hour of need, as spineless as Jav or Tario.
Nor did she accept him coldly; like a true woman she sympathised with those who suffered severely, and they knew it and took counsel of her in the
hour of need. I remember one ardent Gladstonian who, as a general election drew near, was in sore straits indeed, for he disbelieved in Home Rule, and yet how could he vote against 'Gladstone's man'?
'Take it for my sake, that you may have some resource in an
hour of need and trouble.'
He had carried it off as a good joke with Scott, excused his little wife as well as he could, and played the host so hospitably that his friend enjoyed the impromptu dinner, and promised to come again, but John was angry, though he did not show it, he felt that Meg had deserted him in his
hour of need. "It wasn't fair to tell a man to bring folks home any time, with perfect freedom, and when he took you at your word, to flame up and blame him, and leave him in the lurch, to be laughed at or pitied.
In the
hour of need, however, he was not found wanting.
"Well, my dear D'Artagnan, understand this; to that king, to that man of heart, to that friend of my thoughts, if I durst venture to say so, I swore at the last hour to preserve faithfully the secret of a deposit which was to be transmitted to his son, to assist him in his
hour of need. This young man came to me; he described his destitution; he was ignorant that he was anything to me save a living memory of his father.
Three blasts upon the bugle horn I will blow in my
hour of need; then come quickly, for I shall want your aid."
Then against such chances the children must be at once furnished with wings, in order that in the
hour of need they may fly away and escape.