The Seaside Travelers
As some travelers were making their way along the seashore, they came to a high cliff and, looking out upon the sea, saw a bundle of sticks floating at a distance. At first they thought it must be a large ship, so they waited, expecting to see it come into harbor. As the bundle drifted nearer to the shore, they thought it no longer to be a ship, but a boat. But when it was at length thrown on the beach, they saw that it was nothing but a bundle of sticks after all.
Dangers seem greatest at a distance and coming events are magnified according to the interest or inclination of the beholder.