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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19079-h.zip b/19079-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2ccaf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/19079-h.zip diff --git a/19079-h/19079-h.htm b/19079-h/19079-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29b0b25 --- /dev/null +++ b/19079-h/19079-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3166 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lightfoot The Deer, by Thornton W. Burgess + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table { width:70%; padding: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + .tocch {text-align: right; vertical-align: top; width: 5%;} + .tocpg {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; width: 5%;} + .tocname {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps; padding-left: 4em;} + .tocsm {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;} + .illo {text-align: left;} + + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold; text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i11 {display: block; margin-left: 11em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i20 {display: block; margin-left: 20em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer, by +Thornton W. Burgess + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer + +Author: Thornton W. Burgess + +Illustrator: Harrison Cady + +Release Date: August 19, 2006 [EBook #19079] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF LIGHTFOOT *** + + + + +Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus-001.png" alt = "[Illustration]" /><a name="Illo1" id="Illo1"></a> +</div> +<div class="caption">Wonderfully handsome was<br /> Lightfoot the Deer. +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h1>LIGHTFOOT THE DEER</h1> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h6>BY</h6> +<h5>THORNTON W. BURGESS</h5> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h6><i>With Illustrations by</i></h6> + +<h5><i>HARRISON CADY</i></h5> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<h3>GROSSET & DUNLAP</h3> + +<h4>Publishers New York</h4> + +<h5><i>Printed by arrangement with Little, Brown, and Company</i></h5> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h6>COPYRIGHT 1921 BY THORNTON W. BURGESS</h6> + +<h6>ISBN: 0-448-02741-0 (TRADE EDITION)</h6> + +<h6>ISBN: 0-448-13721-6 (LIBRARY EDITION)</h6> + + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + +<h6>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</h6> + +<h6>BY ARRANGEMENT WITH LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY</h6> + +<h6>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</h6> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h6>Dedication<br /> + +TO THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF OUR<br /> + +FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS IN THE GREEN FOREST<br /> + +WITH THE HOPE THAT THIS LITTLE VOLUME<br /> + +MAY IN SOME DEGREE AID IN THE<br /> + +PROTECTION OF THE INNOCENT<br /> + +AND HELPLESS</h6> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table summary="CONTENTS" > + <tr> + <td class="tocch"><span class="smcap">chapter</span></td> + <td></td> + <td class="tocch"><span class="smcap">page</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">I</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Peter Rabbit Meets Lightfoot</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">II</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Lightfoot's New Antlers</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">8</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">III</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Lightfoot Tells How His Antlers Grew</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">15</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">IV</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">The Spirit of Fear</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">22</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">V</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Sammy Jay Brings Lightfoot Word</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">29</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">VI</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">A Game of Hide and Seek</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">34</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">VII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The Merry Little Breezes Help Lightfoot</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">39</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">VIII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Wit Against Wit</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">44</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">IX</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Lightfoot Becomes Uncertain</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">49</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">X</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Lightfoot's Clever Trick</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">53</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XI</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">The Hunted Watches The Hunter</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">58</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Lightfoot Visits Paddy The Beaver</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">63</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XIII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Lightfoot and Paddy Become Partners</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">68</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XIV</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">How Paddy Warned Lightfoot</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">73</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XV</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">The Three Watchers</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">78</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XVI</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Visitors To Paddy's Pond</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">83</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XVII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Sammy Jay Arrives</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">88</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XVIII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">The Hunter Loses His Temper</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">93</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XIX</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">Sammy Jay Is Modest</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">97</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XX</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Lightfoot Hears A Dreadful Sound</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">102<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[pg viii]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXI</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">How Lightfoot Got Rid Of The Hounds</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">107</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">Lightfoot's Long Swim</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">111</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXIII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">Lightfoot Finds A Friend</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">116</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXIV</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">The Hunter Is Disappointed</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">121</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXV</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">The Hunter Lies In Wait</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">126</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXVI</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">Lightfoot Does The Wise Thing</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">131</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXVII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">Sammy Jay Worries</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">136</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXVIII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">The Hunting Season Ends</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">141</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXIX</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">Mr. And Mrs. Quack Are Startled</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">146</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXX</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">The Mystery Is Solved</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">151</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXI</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">A Surprising Discovery</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">156</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">Lightfoot Sees The Stranger</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">161</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXIII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">A Different Game Of Hide And Seek</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">165</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXIV</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">A Startling New Footprint</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">170</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXV</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">Lightfoot Is Reckless</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">175</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXVI</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">Sammy Jay Takes A Hand</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">180</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXVII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">The Great Fight</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">185</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXVIII</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">An Unseen Watcher</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">190</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XXXIX</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">Lightfoot Discovers Love</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">195</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tocch">XL</td> + <td class="tocname"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">Happy Days In The Green Forest</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">200</td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[pg ix]</a></span></p> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table summary="CONTENTS" > + <tr> + <td class="illo"><a href="#Illo1">Wonderfully handsome was Lightfoot the Deer.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg"><i>frontispiece</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocpg"><span class="smcap">facing page</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="illo"><a href="#Illo2">"I don't understand these men creatures, said Peter to little Mrs. Peter.</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">28</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="illo"><a href="#Illo3">"My, but that's a beautiful set of antlers you have!"</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">71</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="illo"><a href="#Illo4">"I tell you what it is," said Sammy Jay to Bobby Coon, "something has happened to Lightfoot."</a></td> + <td class="tocpg">143</td> + </tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h1>LIGHTFOOT THE DEER</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>PETER RABBIT MEETS LIGHTFOOT</h3> + + +<p>Peter Rabbit was on his way back from the pond of Paddy the Beaver deep +in the Green Forest. He had just seen Mr. and Mrs. Quack start toward +the Big River for a brief visit before leaving on their long, difficult +journey to the far-away Southland. Farewells are always rather sad, and +this particular farewell had left Peter with a lump in his throat,—a +queer, choky feeling.</p> + +<p>"If I were sure that they would return next spring, it wouldn't be so +bad," he muttered. "It's those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[pg 2]</a></span> terrible guns. I know what it is to have +to watch out for them. Farmer Brown's boy used to hunt me with one of +them, but he doesn't any more. But even when he did hunt me it wasn't +anything like what the Ducks have to go through. If I kept my eyes and +ears open, I could tell when a hunter was coming and could hide in a +hole if I wanted to. I never had to worry about my meals. But with the +Ducks it is a thousand times worse. They've got to eat while making that +long journey, and they can eat only where there is the right kind of +food. Hunters with terrible guns know where those places are and hide +there until the Ducks come, and the Ducks have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[pg 3]</a></span> no way of knowing +whether the hunters are waiting for them or not. That isn't hunting. +It's—it's—"</p> + +<p>"Well, what is it? What are you talking to yourself about, Peter +Rabbit?"</p> + +<p>Peter looked up with a start to find the soft, beautiful eyes of +Lightfoot the Deer gazing down at him over the top of a little hemlock +tree.</p> + +<p>"It's awful," declared Peter. "It's worse than unfair. It doesn't give +them any chance at all."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it must be so if you say so," replied Lightfoot, "but you +might tell me what all this awfulness is about."</p> + +<p>Peter grinned. Then he began at the beginning and told Lightfoot all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[pg 4]</a></span> +about Mr. and Mrs. Quack and the many dangers they must face on their +long journey to the far-away Southland and back again in the spring, all +because of the heartless hunters with terrible guns. Lightfoot listened +and his great soft eyes were filled with pity for the Quack family.</p> + +<p>"I hope they will get through all right," said he, "and I hope they will +get back in the spring. It is bad enough to be hunted by men at one time +of the year, as no one knows better than I do, but to be hunted in the +spring as well as in the fall is more than twice as bad. Men are strange +creatures.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[pg 5]</a></span> I do not understand them at all. None of the people of the +Green Forest would think of doing such terrible things. I suppose it is +quite right to hunt others in order to get enough to eat, though I am +thankful to say that I never have had to do that, but to hunt others +just for the fun of hunting is something I cannot understand at all. And +yet that is what men seem to do it for. I guess the trouble is they +never have been hunted themselves and don't know how it feels. Sometimes +I think I'll hunt one some day just to teach him a lesson. What are you +laughing at, Peter?"</p> + +<p>"At the idea of you hunting a man," replied Peter. "Your heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[pg 6]</a></span> is all +right, Lightfoot, but you are too timid and gentle to frighten any one. +Big as you are I wouldn't fear you."</p> + +<p>With a single swift bound Lightfoot sprang out in front of Peter. He +stamped his sharp hoofs, lowered his handsome head until the sharp +points of his antlers, which people call horns, pointed straight at +Peter, lifted the hair along the back of his neck, and made a motion as +if to plunge at him. His eyes, which Peter had always thought so soft +and gentle, seemed to flash fire.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Peter in a faint, frightened-sounding voice and leaped to +one side before it entered his foolish little head that Lightfoot was +just pretending.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot chuckled. "Did you say I couldn't frighten any one?" he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[pg 7]</a></span> +demanded.</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't know you could look so terribly fierce," stammered Peter. +"Those antlers look really dangerous when you point them that way. +Why—why—what is that hanging to them? It looks like bits of old fur. +Have you been tearing somebody's coat, Lightfoot?" Peter's eyes were +wide with wonder and suspicion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[pg 8]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT'S NEW ANTLERS</h3> + + +<p>Peter Rabbit was puzzled. He stared at Lightfoot the Deer a wee bit +suspiciously. "Have you been tearing somebody's coat?" he asked again. +He didn't like to think it of Lightfoot, whom he always had believed +quite as gentle, harmless, and timid as himself. But what else could he +think?</p> + +<p>Lightfoot slowly shook his head. "No," said he, "I haven't torn +anybody's coat."</p> + +<p>"Then what are those rags<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[pg 9]</a></span> hanging on your antlers?" demanded Peter.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot chuckled. "They are what is left of the coverings of my new +antlers," he explained.</p> + +<p>"What's that? What do you mean by new antlers?" Peter was sitting up +very straight, with his eyes fixed on Lightfoot's antlers as though he +never had seen them before.</p> + +<p>"Just what I said," retorted Lightfoot. "What do you think of them? I +think they are the finest antlers I've ever had. When I get the rest of +those rags off, they will be as handsome a set as ever was grown in the +Green Forest."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot rubbed his antlers against the trunk of a tree till some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[pg 10]</a></span> of +the rags hanging to them dropped off.</p> + +<p>Peter blinked very hard. He was trying to understand and he couldn't. +Finally he said so.</p> + +<p>"What kind of a story are you trying to fill me up with?" he demanded +indignantly. "Do you mean to tell me that those are not the antlers that +you have had as long as I've known you? How can anything hard like those +antlers grow? And if those are new ones, where are the old ones? Show me +the old ones, and perhaps I'll believe that these are new ones. The idea +of trying to make me believe that antlers grow just like plants! I've +seen Bossy the Cow all summer and I know she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[pg 11]</a></span> has got the same horns she +had last summer. New antlers indeed!"</p> + +<p>"You are quite right, Peter, quite right about Bossy the Cow. She never +has new horns, but that isn't any reason why I shouldn't have new +antlers, is it?" replied Lightfoot patiently. "Her horns are quite +different from my antlers. I have a new pair every year. You haven't +seen me all summer, have you, Peter?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't remember that I have," replied Peter, trying very hard to +remember when he had last seen Lightfoot.</p> + +<p>"I <i>know</i> you haven't," retorted Lightfoot. "I know it because I have +been hiding in a place you never visit."</p> + +<p>"What have you been hiding for?" demanded Peter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>"For my new antlers to grow," replied Lightfoot. "When my new antlers +are growing, I want to be away by myself. I don't like to be seen +without them or with half grown ones. Besides, I am very uncomfortable +while the new antlers are growing and I want to be alone."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot spoke as if he really meant every word he said, but still +Peter couldn't, he just <i>couldn't</i> believe that those wonderful great +antlers had grown out of Lightfoot's head in a single summer. "Where did +you leave your old ones and when did they come off?" he asked, and there +was doubt in the very tone of his voice.</p> + +<p>"They dropped off last spring, but I don't remember just where," replied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[pg 13]</a></span> +Lightfoot. "I was too glad to be rid of them to notice where they +dropped. You see they were loose and uncomfortable, and I hadn't any +more use for them because I knew that my new ones would be bigger and +better. I've got one more point on each than I had last year." Lightfoot +began once more to rub his antlers against the tree to get off the queer +rags hanging to them and to polish the points. Peter watched in silence +for a few minutes. Then, all his suspicions returning, he said:</p> + +<p>"But you haven't told me anything about those rags hanging to your +antlers."</p> + +<p>"And you haven't believed what I have already told you," retorted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[pg 14]</a></span> +Lightfoot. "I don't like telling things to people who won't believe +me."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT TELLS HOW HIS ANTLERS GREW</h3> + + +<p>It is hard to believe what seems impossible. And yet what seems +impossible to you may be a very commonplace matter to some one else. So +it does not do to say that a thing cannot be possible just because you +cannot understand how it can be. Peter Rabbit wanted to believe what +Lightfoot the Deer had just told him, but somehow he couldn't. If he had +seen those antlers growing, it would have been another matter. But he +hadn't seen Lightfoot since the very last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[pg 16]</a></span> of winter, and then Lightfoot +had worn just such handsome antlers as he now had. So Peter really +couldn't be blamed for not being able to believe that those old ones had +been lost and in their place new ones had grown in just the few months +of spring and summer.</p> + +<p>But Peter didn't blame Lightfoot in the least, because he had told Peter +that he didn't like to tell things to people who wouldn't believe what +he told them when Peter had asked him about the rags hanging to his +antlers. "I'm trying to believe it," he said, quite humbly.</p> + +<p>"It's all true," broke in another voice.</p> + +<p>Peter jumped and turned to find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[pg 17]</a></span> his big cousin, Jumper the Hare. Unseen +and unheard, he had stolen up and had overheard what Peter and Lightfoot +had said.</p> + +<p>"How do you know it is true?" snapped Peter a little crossly, for Jumper +had startled him.</p> + +<p>"Because I saw Lightfoot's old antlers after they had fallen off, and I +often saw Lightfoot while his new ones were growing," retorted Jumper.</p> + +<p>"All right! I'll believe anything that Lightfoot tells me if you say it +is true," declared Peter, who greatly admires his cousin, Jumper. "Now +tell me about those rags, Lightfoot. Please do."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot couldn't resist that "please." "Those rags are what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[pg 18]</a></span> is left +of a kind of covering which protected the antlers while they were +growing, as I told you before," said he. "Very soon after my old ones +dropped off the new ones began to grow. They were not hard, not at all +like they are now. They were soft and very tender, and the blood ran +through them just as it does through our bodies. They were covered with +a sort of skin with hairs on it like thin fur. The ends were not sharply +pointed as they now are, but were big and rounded, like knobs. They were +not like antlers at all, and they made my head hot and were very +uncomfortable. That is why I hid away. They grew very fast, so fast that +every day I could see by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[pg 19]</a></span> looking at my reflection in water that they +were a little longer. It seemed to me sometimes as if all my strength +went into those new antlers. And I had to be very careful not to hit +them against anything. In the first place it would have hurt, and in the +second place it might have spoiled the shape of them.</p> + +<p>"When they had grown to the length you now see, they began to shrink and +grow hard. The knobs on the ends shrank until they became pointed. As +soon as they stopped growing the blood stopped flowing up in them, and +as they became hard they were no longer tender. The skin which had +covered them grew dry and split, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[pg 20]</a></span> I rubbed it off on trees and +bushes. The little rags you see are what is left, but I will soon be rid +of those. Then I shall be ready to fight if need be and will fear no one +save man, and will fear him only when he has a terrible gun with him."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot tossed his head proudly and rattled his wonderful antlers +against the nearest tree. "Isn't he handsome," whispered Peter to Jumper +the Hare; "and did you ever hear of anything so wonderful as the growing +of those new antlers in such a short time? It is hard to believe, but I +suppose it must be true."</p> + +<p>"It is," replied Jumper, "and I tell you, Peter, I would hate to have +Lightfoot try those antlers on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[pg 21]</a></span> me, even though I were big as a man. +You've always thought of Lightfoot as timid and afraid, but you should +see him when he is angry. Few people care to face him then."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[pg 22]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE SPIRIT OF FEAR</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i11">When the days grow cold and the nights are clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i11">There stalks abroad the spirit of fear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i20"><i>Lightfoot the Deer.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is sad but true. Autumn is often called the sad time of the year, and +it <i>is</i> the sad time. But it shouldn't be. Old Mother Nature never +intended that it should be. She meant it to be the <i>glad</i> time. It is +the time when all the little people of the Green Forest and the Green +Meadows have got over the cares and worries of bringing up families and +teaching their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[pg 23]</a></span> children how to look out for themselves. It is the +season when food is plentiful, and every one is fat and is, or ought to +be, care free. It is the season when Old Mother Nature intended all her +little people to be happy, to have nothing to worry them for the little +time before the coming of cold weather and the hard times which cold +weather always brings.</p> + +<p>But instead of this, a grim, dark figure goes stalking over the Green +Meadows and through the Green Forest, and it is called the Spirit of +Fear. It peers into every hiding-place and wherever it finds one of the +little people it sends little cold chills over him, little chills which +jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[pg 24]</a></span> cannot chase away, though he shine his +brightest. All night as well as all day the Spirit of Fear searches out +the little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. It will not +let them sleep. It will not let them eat in peace. It drives them to +seek new hiding-places and then drives them out of those. It keeps them +ever ready to fly or run at the slightest sound.</p> + +<p>Peter Rabbit was thinking of this as he sat at the edge of the dear Old +Briar-patch, looking over to the Green Forest. The Green Forest was no +longer just green; it was of many colors, for Old Mother Nature had set +Jack Frost to painting the leaves of the maple-trees and the +beech-trees, and the birch-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[pg 25]</a></span>trees and the poplar-trees and the +chestnut-trees, and he had done his work well. Very, very lovely were +the reds and yellows and browns against the dark green of the pines and +the spruces and the hemlocks. The Purple Hills were more softly purple +than at any other season of the year. It was all very, very beautiful.</p> + +<p>But Peter had no thought for the beauty of it all, for the Spirit of +Fear had visited even the dear Old Briar-patch, and Peter was afraid. It +wasn't fear of Reddy Fox, or Redtail the Hawk, or Hooty the Owl, or Old +Man Coyote. They were forever trying to catch him, but they did not +strike terror to his heart because he felt quite smart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[pg 26]</a></span> enough to keep +out of their clutches. To be sure, they gave him sudden frights +sometimes, when they happened to surprise him, but these frights lasted +only until he reached the nearest bramble-tangle or hollow log where +they could not get at him. But the fear that chilled his heart now never +left him even for a moment.</p> + +<p>And Peter knew that this same fear was clutching at the hearts of Bob +White, hiding in the brown stubble; of Mrs. Grouse, squatting in the +thickest bramble-tangle in the Green Forest; of Uncle Billy Possum and +Bobby Coon in their hollow trees; of Jerry Muskrat in the Smiling Pool; +of Happy Jack Squirrel, hiding in the tree tops; of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[pg 27]</a></span> Lightfoot the Deer, +lying in the closest thicket he could find. It was even clutching at the +hearts of Granny and Reddy Fox and of great, big Buster Bear. It seemed +to Peter that no one was so big or so small that this terrible Spirit of +Fear had not searched him out.</p> + +<p>Far in the distance sounded a sudden bang. Peter jumped and shivered. He +knew that every one else who had heard that bang had jumped and shivered +just as he had. It was the season of hunters with terrible guns. It was +man who had sent this terrible Spirit of Fear to chill the hearts of the +little meadow and forest people at this very time when Old Mother Nature +had made all things so beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[pg 28]</a></span> and had intended that they should be +happiest and most free from care and worry. It was man who had made the +autumn a sad time instead of a glad time, the very saddest time of all +the year, when Old Mother Nature had done her best to make it the most +beautiful.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand these men creatures," said Peter to little Mrs. +Peter, as they stared fearfully out from the dear Old Briar-patch. "They +seem to find pleasure, actually find pleasure, in trying to kill us. I +don't understand them at all. They haven't any hearts. That must be the +reason; they haven't any hearts."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus-038.png" alt = "[Illustration]" /> <a name="Illo2" id="Illo2"></a> +</div> +<div class="caption">"I don't understand these men creatures,"<br /> +said Peter to little Mrs. Peter. +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[pg 29]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>SAMMY JAY BRINGS LIGHTFOOT WORD</h3> + + +<p>Sammy Jay is one of those who believe in the wisdom of the old saying, +"Early to bed and early to rise." Sammy needs no alarm clock to get up +early in the morning. He is awake as soon as it is light enough to see +and wastes no time wishing he could sleep a little longer. His stomach +wouldn't let him if he wanted to. Sammy always wakes up hungry. In this +he is no different from all his feathered neighbors.</p> + +<p>So the minute Sammy gets his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[pg 30]</a></span> eyes open he makes his toilet, for Sammy +is very neat, and starts out to hunt for his breakfast. Long ago Sammy +discovered that there is no safer time of day to visit the dooryards of +those two-legged creatures called men than very early in the morning. On +this particular morning he had planned to fly over to Farmer Brown's +dooryard, but at the last minute he changed his mind. Instead, he flew +over to the dooryard of another farm. It was so very early in the +morning that Sammy didn't expect to find anybody stirring, so you can +guess how surprised he was when, just as he came in sight of that +dooryard, he saw the door of the house open and a man step out.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[pg 31]</a></span>Sammy stopped on the top of the nearest tree. "Now what is that man +doing up as early as this?" muttered Sammy. Then he caught sight of +something under the man's arm. He didn't have to look twice to know what +it was. It was a gun! Yes, sir, it was a gun, a terrible gun.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" exclaimed Sammy, and quite forgot that his stomach was empty. "Now +who can that fellow be after so early in the morning? I wonder if he is +going to the dear Old Briar-patch to look for Peter Rabbit, or if he is +going to the Old Pasture in search of Reddy Fox, or if it is Mr. and +Mrs. Grouse he hopes to kill. I think I'll sit right here and watch."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[pg 32]</a></span>So Sammy sat in the top of the tree and watched the hunter with the +terrible gun. He saw him head straight for the Green Forest. "It's Mr. +and Mrs. Grouse after all, I guess," thought Sammy. "If I knew just +where they were I'd go over and warn them." But Sammy didn't know just +where they were and he knew that it might take him a long time to find +them, so he once more began to think of breakfast and then, right then, +another thought popped into his head. He thought of Lightfoot the Deer.</p> + +<p>Sammy watched the hunter enter the Green Forest, then he silently +followed him. From the way the hunter moved, Sammy decided that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[pg 33]</a></span> he +wasn't thinking of Mr. and Mrs. Grouse. "It's Lightfoot the Deer, sure +as I live," muttered Sammy. "He ought to be warned. He certainly ought +to be warned. I know right where he is. I believe I'll warn him myself."</p> + +<p>Sammy found Lightfoot right where he had expected to. "He's coming!" +cried Sammy. "A hunter with a terrible gun is coming!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[pg 34]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK</h3> + + +<p>There was a game of hide and seek that Danny Meadow Mouse once played +with Buster Bear. It was a very dreadful game for Danny. But hard as it +was for Danny, it didn't begin to be as hard as the game Lightfoot the +Deer was playing with the hunter in the Green Forest.</p> + +<p>In the case of Buster Bear and Danny, the latter had simply to keep out +of reach of Buster. As long as Buster didn't get his great paws on +Danny, the latter was safe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[pg 35]</a></span> Then, too, Danny is a very small person. He +is so small that he can hide under two or three leaves. Wherever he is, +he is pretty sure to find a hiding-place of some sort. His small size +gives him advantages in a game of hide and seek. It certainly does. But +Lightfoot the Deer is big. He is one of the largest of the people who +live in the Green Forest. Being so big, it is not easy to hide.</p> + +<p>Moreover, a hunter with a terrible gun does not have to get close in +order to kill. Lightfoot knew all this as he waited for the coming of +the hunter of whom Sammy Jay had warned him. He had learned many lessons +in the hunting season of the year before and he remem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[pg 36]</a></span>bered every one of +them. He knew that to forget even one of them might cost him his life. +So, standing motionless behind a tangle of fallen trees, Lightfoot +listened and watched.</p> + +<p>Presently over in the distance he heard Sammy Jay screaming, "Thief, +thief, thief!" A little sigh of relief escaped Lightfoot. He knew that +that screaming of Sammy Jay's was a warning to tell him where the hunter +was. Knowing just where the hunter was made it easier for Lightfoot to +know what to do.</p> + +<p>A Merry Little Breeze came stealing through the Green Forest. It came +from behind Lightfoot and danced on towards the hunter with the terrible +gun. Instantly Light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[pg 37]</a></span>foot began to steal softly away through the Green +Forest. He took the greatest care to make no sound. He went in a +half-circle, stopping every few steps to listen and test the air with +his wonderful nose. Can you guess what Lightfoot was trying to do? He +was trying to get behind the hunter so that the Merry Little Breezes +would bring to him the dreaded man-scent. So long as Lightfoot could get +that scent, he would know where the hunter was, though he could neither +see nor hear him. If he had remained where Sammy Jay had found him, the +hunter might have come within shooting distance before Lightfoot could +have located him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[pg 38]</a></span>So the hunter with the terrible gun walked noiselessly through the Green +Forest, stepping with the greatest care to avoid snapping a stick +underfoot, searching with keen eye every thicket and likely hiding-place +for a glimpse of Lightfoot, and studying the ground for traces to show +that Lightfoot had been there.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE MERRY LITTLE BREEZES HELP LIGHTFOOT</h3> + + +<p>Could you have seen the hunter with the terrible gun and Lightfoot the +Deer that morning on which the hunting season opened you might have +thought that Lightfoot was hunting the hunter instead of the hunter +hunting Lightfoot. You see, Lightfoot was behind the hunter instead of +in front of him. He was following the hunter, so as to keep track of +him. As long as he knew just where the hunter was, he felt reasonably +safe.</p> + +<p>The Merry Little Breezes are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[pg 40]</a></span> Lightfoot's best friends. They always +bring to him all the different scents they find as they wander through +the Green Forest. And Lightfoot's delicate nose is so wonderful that he +can take these scents, even though they be very faint, and tell just who +or what has made them. So, though he makes the best possible use of his +big ears and his beautiful eyes, he trusts more to his nose to warn him +of danger. For this reason, during the hunting season when he moves +about, he moves in the direction from which the Merry Little Breezes may +be blowing. He knows that they will bring to him warning of any danger +which may lie in that direction.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[pg 41]</a></span>Now the hunter with the terrible gun who was looking for Lightfoot knew +all this, for he was wise in the ways of Lightfoot and of the other +little people of the Green Forest. When he had entered the Green Forest +that morning he had first of all made sure of the direction from which +the Merry Little Breezes were coming. Then he had begun to hunt in that +direction, knowing that thus his scent would be carried behind him. It +is more than likely that he would have reached the hiding-place of +Lightfoot the Deer before the latter would have known that he was in the +Green Forest, had it not been for Sammy Jay's warning.</p> + +<p>When he reached the tangle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[pg 42]</a></span> fallen trees behind which Lightfoot had +been hiding, he worked around it slowly and with the greatest care, +holding his terrible gun ready to use instantly should Lightfoot leap +out. Presently he found Lightfoot's footprints in the soft ground and +studying them he knew that Lightfoot had known of his coming.</p> + +<p>"It was that confounded Jay," muttered the hunter. "Lightfoot heard him +and knew what it meant. I know what he has done; he has circled round so +as to get behind me and get my scent. It is a clever trick, a very +clever trick, but two can play at that game. I'll just try that little +trick myself."</p> + +<p>So the hunter in his turn made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[pg 43]</a></span> a wide circle back, and presently there +was none of the dreaded man-smell among the scents which the Merry +Little Breezes brought to Lightfoot. Lightfoot had lost track of the +hunter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[pg 44]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>WIT AGAINST WIT</h3> + + +<p>It was a dreadful game the hunter with the terrible gun and Lightfoot +the Deer were playing in the Green Forest. It was a matching of wit +against wit, the hunter seeking to take Lightfoot's life, and Lightfoot +seeking to save it. The experience of other years had taught Lightfoot +much of the ways of hunters and not one of the things he had learned +about them was forgotten. But the hunter in his turn knew much of the +ways of Deer. So it was that each was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[pg 45]</a></span> trying his best to outguess the +other.</p> + +<p>When the hunter found the hiding-place Lightfoot had left at the warning +of Sammy Jay he followed Lightfoot's tracks for a short distance. It was +slow work, and only one whose eyes had been trained to notice little +things could have done it. You see, there was no snow, and only now and +then, when he had stepped on a bit of soft ground, had Lightfoot left a +footprint. But there were other signs which the hunter knew how to +read,—a freshly upturned leaf here, and here, a bit of moss lightly +crushed. These things told the hunter which way Lightfoot had gone.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[pg 46]</a></span>Slowly, patiently, watchfully, the hunter followed. After a while he +stopped with a satisfied grin. "I thought as much," he muttered. "He +heard that pesky Jay and circled around so as to get my scent. I'll just +cut across to my old trail and unless I am greatly mistaken, I'll find +his tracks there."</p> + +<p>So, swiftly but silently, the hunter cut across to his old trail, and in +a few moments he found just what he expected,—one of Lightfoot's +footprints. Once more he grinned.</p> + +<p>"Well, old fellow, I've out-guessed you this time," said he to himself. +"I am behind you and the wind is from you to me, so that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[pg 47]</a></span> you cannot get +my scent. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you're back right where you +started from, behind that old windfall." He at once began to move +forward silently and cautiously, with eyes and ears alert and his +terrible gun ready for instant use.</p> + +<p>Now when Lightfoot, following behind the hunter, had lost the scent of +the latter, he guessed right away that the latter had found his tracks +and had started to follow them. Lightfoot stood still and listened with +all his might for some little sound to tell him where the hunter was. +But there was no sound and after a little Lightfoot began to move on. He +didn't dare remain still, lest the hunter should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[pg 48]</a></span> creep up within +shooting distance. There was only one direction in which it was safe for +Lightfoot to move, and that was the direction from which the Merry +Little Breezes were blowing. So long as they brought him none of the +dreaded man-smell, he knew that he was safe. The hunter might be behind +him—probably he was—but ahead of him, so long as the Merry Little +Breezes were blowing in his face and brought no man-smell, was safety.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[pg 49]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT BECOMES UNCERTAIN</h3> + + +<p>Lightfoot the Deer traveled on through the Green Forest, straight ahead +in the direction from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing. Every +few steps he would raise his delicate nose and test all the scents that +the Merry Little Breezes were bringing. So long as he kept the Merry +Little Breezes blowing in his face, he could be sure whether or not +there was danger ahead of him.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot uses his nose very much as you and I use our eyes. It tells<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[pg 50]</a></span> +him the things he wants to know. He knew that Reddy Fox had been along +ahead of him, although he didn't get so much as a glimpse of Reddy's red +coat. Once he caught just the faintest of scents which caused him to +stop abruptly and test the air more carefully than ever. It was the +scent of Buster Bear. But it was so very faint that Lightfoot knew +Buster was not near, so he went ahead again, but even more carefully +than before. After a little he couldn't smell Buster at all, so he knew +then that Buster had merely passed that way when he was going to some +other part of the Green Forest.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot knew that he had nothing to fear in that direction so long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[pg 51]</a></span> as +the Merry Little Breezes brought him none of the dreaded man-scent, and +he knew that he could trust the Merry Little Breezes to bring him that +scent if there should be a man anywhere in front of him. You know the +Merry Little Breezes are Lightfoot's best friends. But Lightfoot didn't +want to keep going in that direction all day.</p> + +<p>It would take him far away from that part of the Green Forest with which +he was familiar and which he called home. It might in time take him out +of the Green Forest and that wouldn't do at all. So after a while +Lightfoot became uncertain. He didn't know just what to do. You see, he +couldn't tell whether or not that hunter with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[pg 52]</a></span> the terrible gun was +still following him.</p> + +<p>Every once in a while he would stop in a thicket of young trees or +behind a tangle of fallen trees uprooted by the wind. There he would +stand, facing the direction from which he had come, and watch and listen +for some sign that the hunter was still following. But after a few +minutes of this he would grow uneasy and then bound away in the +direction from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing, so as to be +sure of not running into danger.</p> + +<p>"If only I could know if that hunter is still following, I would know +better what to do," thought Lightfoot. "I've got to find out."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[pg 53]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT'S CLEVER TRICK</h3> + + +<p>Lightfoot the Deer is smart. Yes, Sir, Lightfoot the Deer is smart. He +has to be, especially in the hunting season, to save his life. If he +were not smart he would have been killed long ago. He never makes the +foolish mistake of thinking that other people are not smart. He knew +that the hunter who had started out to follow him early that morning was +not one to be easily discouraged or to be fooled by simple tricks. He +had a very great respect for the smartness of that hunter. He knew that +he couldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[pg 54]</a></span> afford to be careless for one little minute.</p> + +<p>The certainty of danger is sometimes easier to bear than the uncertainty +of not knowing whether or not there really is any danger. Lightfoot felt +that if he could know just where the hunter was, he himself would know +better what to do. The hunter might have become discouraged and given up +following him. In that case he could rest and stop worrying. It would be +better to know that he was being followed than not to know. But how was +he to find out? Lightfoot kept turning this over and over in his mind as +he traveled through the Green Forest. Then an idea came to him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[pg 55]</a></span>"I know what I'll do. I know just what I'll do," said Lightfoot to +himself. "I'll find out whether or not that hunter is still following me +and I'll get a little rest. Goodness knows, I need a rest."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot bounded away swiftly and ran for some distance, then he turned +and quickly, but very, very quietly, returned in the direction from +which he had just come but a little to one side of his old trail. After +a while he saw what he was looking for, a pile of branches which +woodchoppers had left when they had trimmed the trees they had cut down. +This was near the top of a little hill. Lightfoot went up the hill and +stopped behind the pile of brush. For a few moments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[pg 56]</a></span> he stood there +perfectly still, looking and listening. Then, with a little sigh of +relief, he lay down, where, without being in any danger of being seen +himself, he could watch his old trail through the hollow at the bottom +of the hill. If the hunter were still following him, he would pass +through that hollow in plain sight.</p> + +<p>For a long time Lightfoot rested comfortably behind the pile of brush. +There was not a suspicious movement or a suspicious sound to show that +danger was abroad in the Green Forest. He saw Mr. and Mrs. Grouse fly +down across the hollow and disappear among the trees on the other side. +He saw Unc' Billy Possum looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[pg 57]</a></span> over a hollow tree and guessed that +Unc' Billy was getting ready to go into winter quarters. He saw Jumper +the Hare squat down under a low-hanging branch of a hemlock-tree and +prepare to take a nap. He heard Drummer the Woodpecker at work drilling +after worms in a tree not far away. Little by little Lightfoot grew easy +in his mind. It must be that that hunter had become discouraged and was +no longer following him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[pg 58]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE HUNTED WATCHES THE HUNTER</h3> + + +<p>It was so quiet and peaceful and altogether lovely there in the Green +Forest, where Lightfoot the Deer lay resting behind a pile of brush near +the top of a little hill, that it didn't seem possible such a thing as +sudden death could be anywhere near. It didn't seem possible that there +could be any need for watchfulness. But Lightfoot long ago had learned +that often danger is nearest when it seems least to be expected. So, +though he would have liked very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[pg 59]</a></span> much to have taken a nap, Lightfoot was +too wise to do anything so foolish. He kept his beautiful, great, soft +eyes fixed in the direction from which the hunter with the terrible gun +would come if he were still following that trail. He kept his great ears +gently moving to catch every little sound.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot had about decided that the hunter had given up hunting for +that day, but he didn't let this keep him from being any the less +watchful. It was better to be overwatchful than the least bit careless. +By and by, Lightfoot's keen ears caught the sound of the snapping of a +little stick in the distance. It was so faint a sound that you or I +would have missed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[pg 60]</a></span> it altogether. But Lightfoot heard it and instantly +he was doubly alert, watching in the direction from which that faint +sound had come. After what seemed a long, long time he saw something +moving, and a moment later a man came into view. It was the hunter and +across one arm he carried the terrible gun.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot knew now that this hunter had patience and perseverance and +had not yet given up hope of getting near enough to shoot Lightfoot. He +moved forward slowly, setting each foot down with the greatest care, so +as not to snap a stick or rustle the leaves. He was watching sharply +ahead, ready to shoot should he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[pg 61]</a></span> catch a glimpse of Lightfoot within +range.</p> + +<p>Right along through the hollow at the foot of the little hill below +Lightfoot the hunter passed. He was no longer studying the ground for +Lightfoot's tracks, because the ground was so hard and dry down there +that Lightfoot had left no tracks. He was simply hunting in the +direction from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing because he +knew that Lightfoot had gone in that direction, and he also knew that if +Lightfoot were still ahead of him, his scent could not be carried to +Lightfoot. He was doing what is called "hunting up-wind."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot kept perfectly still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[pg 62]</a></span> and watched the hunter disappear among +the trees. Then he silently got to his feet, shook himself lightly, and +noiselessly stole away over the hilltop towards another part of the +Green Forest. He felt sure that that hunter would not find him again +that day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[pg 63]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT VISITS PADDY THE BEAVER</h3> + + +<p>Deep in the Green Forest is the pond where lives Paddy the Beaver. It is +Paddy's own pond, for he made it himself. He made it by building a dam +across the Laughing Brook.</p> + +<p>When Lightfoot bounded away through the Green Forest, after watching the +hunter pass through the hollow below him, he remembered Paddy's pond. +"That's where I'll go," thought Lightfoot. "It is such a lonesome part +of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[pg 64]</a></span> Green Forest that I do not believe that hunter will come there. +I'll just run over and make Paddy a friendly call."</p> + +<p>So Lightfoot bounded along deeper and deeper into the Green Forest. +Presently through the trees he caught the gleam of water. It was Paddy's +pond. Lightfoot approached it cautiously. He felt sure he was rid of the +hunter who had followed him so far that day, but he knew that there +might be other hunters in the Green Forest. He knew that he couldn't +afford to be careless for even one little minute. Lightfoot had lived +long enough to know that most of the sad things and dreadful things that +happen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[pg 65]</a></span> in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows are due to +carelessness. No one who is hunted, be he big or little, can afford ever +to be careless.</p> + +<p>Now Lightfoot had known of hunters hiding near water, hoping to shoot +him when he came to drink. That always seemed to Lightfoot a dreadful +thing, an unfair thing. But hunters had done it before and they might do +it again. So Lightfoot was careful to approach Paddy's pond up-wind. +That is, he approached the side of the pond from which the Merry Little +Breezes were blowing toward him, and all the time he kept his nose +working. He knew that if any hunters were hidden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[pg 66]</a></span> there, the Merry +Little Breezes would bring him their scent and thus warn him.</p> + +<p>He had almost reached the edge of Paddy's pond when from the farther +shore there came a sudden crash. It startled Lightfoot terribly for just +an instant. Then he guessed what it meant. That crash was the falling of +a tree. There wasn't enough wind to blow over even the most shaky dead +tree. There had been no sound of axes, so he knew it could not have been +chopped down by men. It must be that Paddy the Beaver had cut it, and if +Paddy had been working in daylight, it was certain that no one had been +around that pond for a long time.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[pg 67]</a></span>So Lightfoot hurried forward eagerly, cautiously. When he reached the +bank he looked across towards where the sound of that falling tree had +come from; a branch of a tree was moving along in the water and half +hidden by it was a brown head. It was Paddy the Beaver taking the branch +to his food pile.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[pg 68]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT AND PADDY BECOME PARTNERS</h3> + + +<p>The instant Lightfoot saw Paddy the Beaver he knew that for the time +being, at least, there was no danger. He knew that Paddy is one of the +shyest of all the little people of the Green Forest and that when he is +found working in the daytime it means that he has been undisturbed for a +long time; otherwise he would work only at night.</p> + +<p>Paddy saw Lightfoot almost as soon as he stepped out on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[pg 69]</a></span> bank. He +kept right on swimming with the branch of a poplar-tree until he reached +his food pile, which, you know, is in the water. There he forced the +branch down until it was held by other branches already sunken in the +pond. This done, he swam over to where Lightfoot was watching. "Hello, +Lightfoot!" he exclaimed. "You are looking handsomer than ever. How are +you feeling these fine autumn days?"</p> + +<p>"Anxious," replied Lightfoot. "I am feeling terribly anxious. Do you +know what day this is?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Paddy, "I don't know what day it is, and I don't +particularly care. It is enough for me that it is one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[pg 70]</a></span> finest +days we've had for a long time."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could feel that way," said Lightfoot wistfully. "I wish I +could feel that way, Paddy, but I can't. No, Sir, I can't. You see, this +is the first of the most dreadful days in all the year for me. The +hunters started looking for me before Mr. Sun was really out of bed. At +least one hunter did, and I don't doubt there are others. I fooled that +one, but from now to the end of the hunting season there will not be a +single moment of daylight when I will feel absolutely safe."</p> + +<p>Paddy crept out on the bank and chewed a little twig of poplar +thoughtfully. Paddy says he can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[pg 71]</a></span> always think better if he is chewing +something. "That's bad news, Lightfoot. I'm sorry to hear it. I +certainly am sorry to hear it," said Paddy. "Why anybody wants to hunt +such a handsome fellow as you are, I cannot understand. My, but that's a +beautiful set of antlers you have!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus-083.png" alt="[Illustration]" /><a name="Illo3" id="Illo3"></a> +</div> +<div class="caption">"My, but that's a beautiful set of antlers<br /> +you have!" +</div> + +<p>"They are the best I've ever had; but do you know, Paddy, I suspect that +they may be one of the reasons I am hunted so," replied Lightfoot a +little sadly. "Good looks are not always to be desired. Have you seen +any hunters around here lately?"</p> + +<p>Paddy shook his head. "Not a single hunter," he replied. "I tell you +what it is, Lightfoot, let's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[pg 72]</a></span> be partners for a while. You stay right +around my pond. If I see or hear or smell anything suspicious, I'll warn +you. You do the same for me. Two sets of eyes, ears and noses are better +than one. What do you say, Lightfoot?"</p> + +<p>"I'll do it," replied Lightfoot.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[pg 73]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>HOW PADDY WARNED LIGHTFOOT</h3> + + +<p>It was a queer partnership, that partnership between Lightfoot and +Paddy, but it was a good partnership. They had been the best of friends +for a long time. Paddy had always been glad to have Lightfoot visit his +pond. To tell the truth, he was rather fond of handsome Lightfoot. You +know Paddy is himself not at all handsome. On land he is a rather +clumsy-looking fellow and really homely. So he admired Lightfoot +greatly. That is one reason why he proposed that they be partners.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[pg 74]</a></span>Lightfoot himself thought the idea a splendid one. He spent that night +browsing not far from Paddy's pond. With the coming of daylight he lay +down in a thicket of young hemlock-trees near the upper end of the pond. +It was a quiet, peaceful day. It was so quiet and peaceful and beautiful +it was hard to believe that hunters with terrible guns were searching +the Green Forest for beautiful Lightfoot. But they were, and Lightfoot +knew that sooner or later one of them would be sure to visit Paddy's +pond. So, though he rested and took short naps all through that +beautiful day, he was anxious. He couldn't help but be.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[pg 75]</a></span>The next morning found Lightfoot back in the same place. But this +morning he took no naps. He rested, but all the time he was watchful and +alert. A feeling of uneasiness possessed him. He felt in his bones that +danger in the shape of a hunter with a terrible gun was not far distant.</p> + +<p>But the hours slipped away, and little by little he grew less uneasy. He +began to hope that that day would prove as peaceful as the previous day +had been. Then suddenly there was a sharp report from the farther end of +Paddy's pond. It was almost like a pistol shot. However, it wasn't a +pistol shot. It wasn't a shot at all. It was the slap of Paddy's broad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[pg 76]</a></span> +tail on the surface of the water. Instantly Lightfoot was on his feet. +He knew just what that meant. He knew that Paddy had seen or heard or +smelled a hunter.</p> + +<p>It was even so. Paddy had heard a dry stick snap. It was a very tiny +snap, but it was enough to warn Paddy. With only his head above water he +had watched in the direction from which that sound had come. Presently, +stealing quietly along towards the pond, a hunter had come in view. +Instantly, Paddy had brought his broad tail down on the water with all +his force. He knew that Lightfoot would know that that meant danger. +Then Paddy had dived,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[pg 77]</a></span> and swimming under water, had sought the safety +of his house. He had done his part, and there was nothing more he could +do.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[pg 78]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE THREE WATCHERS</h3> + + +<p>When Paddy the Beaver slapped the water with his broad tail, making a +noise like a pistol shot, Lightfoot understood that this was meant as a +warning of danger. He was on his feet instantly, with eyes, ears, and +nose seeking the cause of Paddy's warning. After a moment or two he +stole softly up to the top of a little ridge some distance back from +Paddy's pond, but from the top of which he could see the whole of the +pond. There he hid among some close-growing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[pg 79]</a></span> young hemlock-trees. It +wasn't long before he saw a hunter with a terrible gun come down to the +shore of the pond.</p> + +<p>Now the hunter had heard Paddy slap the water with his broad tail. Of +course. There would have been something very wrong with his ears had he +failed to hear it.</p> + +<p>"Confound that Beaver!" muttered the hunter crossly. "If there was a +Deer anywhere around this pond, he probably is on his way now. I'll have +a look around and see if there are any signs."</p> + +<p>So the hunter went on to the edge of Paddy's pond and then began to walk +around it, studying the ground as he walked. Presently he found the +footprints of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[pg 80]</a></span> Lightfoot in the mud where Light foot had gone down to +the pond to drink.</p> + +<p>"I thought as much," muttered the hunter. "Those tracks were made last +night. That Deer probably was lying down somewhere near here, and I +might have had a shot but for that pesky Beaver. I'll just look the land +over, and then I think I'll wait here awhile. If that Deer isn't too +badly scared, he may come back."</p> + +<p>So the hunter went quite around the pond, looking into all likely +hiding-places. He found where Lightfoot had been lying, and he knew that +in all probability Lightfoot had been there when Paddy gave the danger +signal.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[pg 81]</a></span>"It's of no use for me to try to follow him," thought the hunter. "It is +too dry for me to track him. He may not be so badly scared, after all. +I'll just find a good place and wait."</p> + +<p>So the hunter found an old log behind some small trees and there sat +down. He could see all around Paddy's pond. He sat perfectly still. He +was a clever hunter and he knew that so long as he did not move he was +not likely to be noticed by any sharp eyes that might come that way. +What he didn't know was that Lightfoot had been watching him all the +time and was even then standing where he could see him. And another +thing he didn't know was that Paddy the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[pg 82]</a></span> Beaver had come out of his +house and, swimming under water, had reached a hiding-place on the +opposite shore from which he too had seen the hunter sit down on the +log.</p> + +<p>So the hunter watched for Lightfoot, and Lightfoot and Paddy watched the +hunter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[pg 83]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>VISITORS TO PADDY'S POND</h3> + + +<p>That hunter was a man of patience. Also he was a man who understood the +little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows. He knew that if +he would not be seen he must not move. So he didn't move. He kept as +motionless as if he were a part of the very log on which he was sitting.</p> + +<p>For some time there was no sign of any living thing. Then, from over the +tree tops in the direction of the Big River, came the whistle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[pg 84]</a></span> of swift +wings, and Mr. and Mrs. Quack alighted with a splash in the pond. For a +few moments they sat on the water, a picture of watchful suspicion. They +were looking and listening to make sure that no danger was near. +Satisfied at last, they began to clean their feathers. It was plain that +they felt safe. Paddy the Beaver was tempted to warn them that they were +not as safe as they thought, but as long as the hunter did not move +Paddy decided to wait.</p> + +<p>Now the hunter was sorely tempted to shoot these Ducks, but he knew that +if he did he would have no chance that day to get Lightfoot the Deer, +and it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[pg 85]</a></span> Lightfoot he wanted. So Mr. and Mrs. Quack swam about within +easy range of that terrible gun without once suspecting that danger was +anywhere near.</p> + +<p>By and by the hunter's keen eyes caught a movement at one end of Paddy's +dam. An instant later Bobby Coon appeared. It was clear that Bobby was +quite unsuspicious. He carried something, but just what the hunter could +not make out. He took it down to the edge of the water and there +carefully washed it. Then he climbed up on Paddy's dam and began to eat. +You know Bobby Coon is very particular about his food. Whenever there is +water near, Bobby washes his food before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[pg 86]</a></span> eating. Once more the hunter +was tempted, but did not yield to the temptation, which was a very good +thing for Bobby Coon.</p> + +<p>All this Lightfoot saw as he stood among the little hemlock-trees at the +top of the ridge behind the hunter. He saw and he understood. "It is +because he wants to kill me that he doesn't shoot at Mr. and Mrs. Quack +or Bobby Coon," thought Lightfoot a little bitterly. "What have I ever +done that he should be so anxious to kill me?"</p> + +<p>Still the hunter sat without moving. Mr. and Mrs. Quack contentedly +hunted for food in the mud at the bottom of Paddy's pond. Bobby Coon +finished his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[pg 87]</a></span> meal, crossed the dam and disappeared in the Green Forest. +He had gone off to take a nap somewhere. Time slipped away. The hunter +continued to watch patiently for Lightfoot, and Lightfoot and Paddy the +Beaver watched the hunter. Finally, another visitor appeared at the +upper end of the pond—a visitor in a wonderful coat of red. It was +Reddy Fox.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[pg 88]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>SAMMY JAY ARRIVES</h3> + + +<p>When Reddy Fox arrived at the pond of Paddy the Beaver, the hunter who +was hiding there saw him instantly. So did Lightfoot. But no one else +did. He approached in that cautious, careful way that he always uses +when he is hunting. The instant he reached a place where he could see +all over Paddy's pond, he stopped as suddenly as if he had been turned +to stone. He stopped with one foot lifted in the act of taking a step. +He had seen Mr. and Mrs. Quack.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[pg 89]</a></span>Now you know there is nothing Reddy Fox likes better for a dinner than a +Duck. The instant he saw Mr. and Mrs. Quack, a gleam of longing crept +into his eyes and his mouth began to water. He stood motionless until +both Mr. and Mrs. Quack had their heads under water as they searched for +food in the mud in the bottom of the pond. Then like a red flash he +bounded out of sight behind the dam of Paddy the Beaver.</p> + +<p>Presently the hunter saw Reddy's black nose at the end of the dam as +Reddy peeped around it to watch Mr. and Mrs. Quack. The latter were +slowly moving along in that direction as they fed. Reddy was quick to +see this. If he remained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[pg 90]</a></span> right where he was, and Mr. and Mrs. Quack +kept on feeding in that direction, the chances were that he would have a +dinner of fat Duck. All he need do was to be patient and wait. So, with +his eyes fixed fast on Mr. and Mrs. Quack, Reddy Fox crouched behind +Paddy's dam and waited.</p> + +<p>Watching Reddy and the Ducks, the hunter almost forgot Lightfoot the +Deer. Mr. and Mrs. Quack were getting very near to where Reddy was +waiting for them. The hunter was tempted to get up and frighten those +Ducks. He didn't want Reddy Fox to have them, because he hoped some day +to get them himself.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," thought he, "I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[pg 91]</a></span> foolish not to shoot them when I had +the chance. They are too far away now, and it looks very much as if that +red rascal will get one of them. I believe I'll spoil that red scamp's +plans by frightening them away. I don't believe that Deer will be back +here to-day anyway, so I may as well save those Ducks."</p> + +<p>But the hunter did nothing of the kind. You see, just as he was getting +ready to step out from his hiding-place, Sammy Jay arrived. He perched +in a tree close to the end of Paddy's dam and at once he spied Reddy +Fox. It didn't take him a second to discover what Reddy was hiding there +for. "Thief, thief, thief!" screamed Sammy, and then looked down at +Reddy with a mis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[pg 92]</a></span>chievous look in his sharp eyes. There is nothing Sammy +Jay delights in more than in upsetting the plans of Reddy Fox. At the +sound of Sammy's voice, Mr. and Mrs. Quack swam hurriedly towards the +middle of the pond. They knew exactly what that warning meant. Reddy Fox +looked up at Sammy Jay and snarled angrily. Then, knowing it was useless +to hide longer, he bounded away through the Green Forest to hunt +elsewhere.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[pg 93]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE HUNTER LOSES HIS TEMPER</h3> + + +<p>The hunter, hidden near the pond of Paddy the Beaver, chuckled silently. +That is to say, he laughed without making any sound. The hunter thought +the warning of Mr. and Mrs. Quack by Sammy Jay was a great joke on +Reddy. To tell the truth, he was very much pleased. As you know, he +wanted those Ducks himself. He suspected that they would stay in that +little pond for some days, and he planned to return there and shoot them +after he had got Lightfoot the Deer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[pg 94]</a></span> He wanted to get Lightfoot first, +and he knew that to shoot at anything else might spoil his chance of +getting a shot at Lightfoot.</p> + +<p>"Sammy Jay did me a good turn," thought the hunter, "although he doesn't +know it. Reddy Fox certainly would have caught one of those Ducks had +Sammy not come along just when he did. It would have been a shame to +have had one of them caught by that Fox. I mean to get one, and I hope +both of them, myself."</p> + +<p>Now when you come to think of it, it would have been a far greater shame +for the hunter to have killed Mr. and Mrs. Quack than for Reddy Fox to +have done so. Reddy was hunting them because he was hun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[pg 95]</a></span>gry. The hunter +would have shot them for sport. He didn't need them. He had plenty of +other food. Reddy Fox doesn't kill just for the pleasure of killing.</p> + +<p>So the hunter continued to sit in his hiding-place with very friendly +feelings for Sammy Jay. Sammy watched Reddy Fox disappear and then flew +over to that side of the pond where the hunter was. Mr. and Mrs. Quack +called their thanks to Sammy, to which he replied, that he had done no +more for them than he would do for anybody, or than they would have done +for him.</p> + +<p>For some time Sammy sat quietly in the top of the tree, but all the time +his sharp eyes were very busy. By and by he spied the hunter sit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[pg 96]</a></span>ting on +the log. At first he couldn't make out just what it was he was looking +at. It didn't move, but nevertheless Sammy was suspicious. Presently he +flew over to a tree where he could see better. Right away he spied the +terrible gun, and he knew just what that was. Once more he began to +yell, "Thief! thief! thief!" at the top of his lungs. It was then that +the hunter lost his temper. He knew that now he had been discovered by +Sammy Jay, and it was useless to remain there longer. He was angry clear +through.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[pg 97]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>SAMMY JAY IS MODEST</h3> + + +<p>As soon as the angry hunter with the terrible gun had disappeared among +the trees of the Green Forest, and Lightfoot was sure that he had gone +for good, Lightfoot came out from his hiding-place on top of the ridge +and walked down to the pond of Paddy the Beaver for a drink. He knew +that it was quite safe to do so, for Sammy Jay had followed the hunter, +all the time screaming, "Thief! thief! thief!" Every one within hearing +could tell just where that hunter was by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[pg 98]</a></span> Sammy's voice. It kept growing +fainter and fainter, and by that Lightfoot knew that the hunter was +getting farther and farther away.</p> + +<p>Paddy the Beaver swam out from his hiding-place and climbed out on the +bank near Lightfoot. There was a twinkle in his eyes. "That blue-coated +mischief-maker isn't such a bad fellow at heart, after all, is he?" said +he.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot lifted his beautiful head and set his ears forward to catch +the sound of Sammy's voice in the distance.</p> + +<p>"Sammy Jay may be a mischief-maker, as some people say," said he, "but +you can always count on him to prove a true friend in time of danger. He +brought me warn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[pg 99]</a></span>ing of the coming of the hunter the other morning. You +saw him save Mr. and Mrs. Quack a little while ago, and then he actually +drove that hunter away. I suppose Sammy Jay has saved more lives than +any one I know of. I wish he would come back here and let me thank him."</p> + +<p>Some time later Sammy Jay did come back. "Well," said he, as he smoothed +his feathers, "I chased that fellow clear to the edge of the Green +Forest, so I guess there will be nothing more to fear from him to-day. +I'm glad to see he hasn't got you yet, Lightfoot. I've been a bit +worried about you."</p> + +<p>"Sammy," said Lightfoot, "you are one of the best friends I have.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[pg 100]</a></span> I +don't know how I can ever thank you for what you have done for me."</p> + +<p>"Don't try," replied Sammy shortly. "I haven't done anything but what +anybody else would have done. Old Mother Nature gave me a pair of good +eyes and a strong voice. I simply make the best use of them I can. Just +to see a hunter with a terrible gun makes me angry clear through. I'd +rather spoil his hunting than eat."</p> + +<p>"You want to watch out, Sammy. One of these days a hunter will lose his +temper and shoot you, just to get even with you," warned Paddy the +Beaver.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry about me," replied Sammy "I know just how far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[pg 101]</a></span> those +terrible guns can shoot, and I don't take any chances. By the way, +Lightfoot, the Green Forest is full of hunters looking for you. I've +seen a lot of them, and I know they are looking for you because they do +not shoot at anybody else even when they have a chance."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[pg 102]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT HEARS A DREADFUL SOUND</h3> + + +<p>Day after day, Lightfoot the Deer played hide and seek for his life with +the hunters who were seeking to kill him. He saw them many times, though +not one of them saw him. More than once a hunter passed close to +Lightfoot's hiding-place without once suspecting it.</p> + +<p>But poor Lightfoot was feeling the strain. He was growing thin, and he +was so nervous that the falling of a dead leaf from a tree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[pg 103]</a></span> would +startle him. There is nothing quite so terrible as being continually +hunted. It was getting so that Lightfoot half expected a hunter to step +out from behind every tree. Only when the Black Shadows wrapped the +Green Forest in darkness did he know a moment of peace. And those hours +of safety were filled with dread of what the next day might bring.</p> + +<p>Early one morning a terrible sound rang through the Green Forest and +brought Lightfoot to his feet with a startled jump. It was the baying of +hounds following a trail. At first it did not sound so terrible. +Lightfoot had often heard it before. Many times<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[pg 104]</a></span> he had listened to the +baying of Bowser the Hound, as he followed Reddy Fox. It had not sounded +so terrible then because it meant no danger to Lightfoot.</p> + +<p>At first, as he listened early that morning, he took it for granted that +those hounds were after Reddy, and so, though startled, he was not +worried. But suddenly a dreadful suspicion came to him and he grew more +and more anxious as he listened. In a few minutes there was no longer +any doubt in his mind. Those hounds were following his trail. It was +then that the sound of that baying became terrible. He must run for his +life! Those hounds would give him no rest. And he knew that in run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[pg 105]</a></span>ning +from them, he would no longer be able to watch so closely for the +hunters with terrible guns. He would no longer be able to hide in +thickets. At any time he might be driven right past one of those +hunters.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot bounded away with such leaps as only Lightfoot can make. In a +little while the voices of the hounds grew fainter. Lightfoot stopped to +get his breath and stood trembling as he listened. The baying of the +hounds again grew louder and louder. Those wonderful noses of theirs +were following his trail without the least difficulty. In a panic of +fear, Lightfoot bounded away again. As he crossed an old road, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[pg 106]</a></span> +Green Forest rang with the roar of a terrible gun. Something tore a +strip of bark from the trunk of a tree just above Lightfoot's back. It +was a bullet and it had just missed Lightfoot. It added to his terror +and this in turn added to his speed.</p> + +<p>So Lightfoot ran and ran, and behind him the voices of the hounds +continued to ring through the Green Forest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[pg 107]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>HOW LIGHTFOOT GOT RID OF THE HOUNDS</h3> + + +<p>Poor Lightfoot! It seemed to him that there were no such things as +justice and fair play. Had it been just one hunter at a time against +whom he had to match his wits it would not have been so bad. But there +were many hunters with terrible guns looking for him, and in dodging one +he was likely at any time to meet another. This in itself seemed +terribly unfair and unjust. But now, added to this was the greater +unfairness of being trailed by hounds.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[pg 108]</a></span>Do you wonder that Lightfoot thought of men as utterly heartless? You +see, he could not know that those hounds had not been put on his trail, +but had left home to hunt for their own pleasure. He could not know that +it was against the law to hunt him with dogs. But though none of those +hunters looking for him were guilty of having put the hounds on his +trail, each one of them was willing and eager to take advantage of the +fact that the hounds were on his trail. Already he had been shot at once +and he knew that he would be shot at again if he should be driven where +a hunter was hidden.</p> + +<p>The ground was damp and scent always lies best on damp ground.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[pg 109]</a></span> This +made it easy for the hounds to follow him with their wonderful noses. +Lightfoot tried every trick he could think of to make those hounds lose +the scent.</p> + +<p>"If only I could make them lose it long enough for me to get a little +rest, it would help," panted Lightfoot, as he paused for just an instant +to listen to the baying of the hounds.</p> + +<p>But he couldn't. They allowed him no rest. He was becoming very, very +tired. He could no longer bound lightly over fallen logs or brush, as he +had done at first. His lungs ached as he panted for breath. He realized +that even though he should escape the hunters he would meet an even more +terrible death unless he could get rid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[pg 110]</a></span> of those hounds. There would +come a time when he would have to stop. Then those hounds would catch up +with him and tear him to pieces.</p> + +<p>It was then that he remembered the Big River. He turned towards it. It +was his only chance and he knew it. Straight through the Green Forest, +out across the Green Meadows to the bank of the Big River, Lightfoot +ran. For just a second he paused to look behind. The hounds were almost +at his heels. Lightfoot hesitated no longer but plunged into the Big +River and began to swim. On the banks the hounds stopped and bayed their +disappointment, for they did not dare follow Lightfoot out into the Big +River.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[pg 111]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT'S LONG SWIM</h3> + + +<p>The Big River was very wide. It would have been a long swim for +Lightfoot had he been fresh and at his best. Strange as it may seem, +Lightfoot is a splendid swimmer, despite his small, delicate feet. He +enjoys swimming.</p> + +<p>But now Lightfoot was terribly tired from his long run ahead of the +hounds. For a time he swam rapidly, but those weary muscles grew still +more weary, and by the time he reached the middle of the Big River it +seemed to him that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[pg 112]</a></span> he was not getting ahead at all. At first he had +tried to swim towards a clump of trees he could see on the opposite bank +above the point where he had entered the water, but to do this he had to +swim against the current and he soon found that he hadn't the strength +to do this. Then he turned and headed for a point down the Big River. +This made the swimming easier, for the current helped him instead of +hindering him.</p> + +<p>Even then he could feel his strength leaving him. Had he escaped those +hounds and the terrible hunters only to be drowned in the Big River? +This new fear gave him more strength for a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[pg 113]</a></span> while. But it did not +last long. He was three fourths of the way across the Big River but +still that other shore seemed a long distance away. Little by little +hope died in the heart of Lightfoot the Deer. He would keep on just as +long as he could and then,—well, it was better to drown than to be torn +to pieces by dogs.</p> + +<p>Just as Lightfoot felt that he could not take another stroke and that +the end was at hand, one foot touched something. Then, all four feet +touched. A second later he had found solid footing and was standing with +the water only up to his knees. He had found a little sand bar out in +the Big River. With a little gasp of returning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[pg 114]</a></span> hope, Lightfoot waded +along until the water began to grow deeper again. He had hoped that he +would be able to wade ashore, but he saw now that he would have to swim +again.</p> + +<p>So for a long time he remained right where he was. He was so tired that +he trembled all over, and he was as frightened as he was tired. He knew +that standing out there in the water he could be seen for a long +distance, and that made him nervous and fearful. Supposing a hunter on +the shore he was trying to reach should see him. Then he would have no +chance at all, for the hunter would simply wait for him and shoot him as +he came out of the water.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[pg 115]</a></span>But rest he must, and so he stood for a long time on the little sand bar +in the Big River. And little by little he felt his strength returning.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[pg 116]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT FINDS A FRIEND</h3> + + +<p>As Lightfoot rested, trying to recover his breath, out there on the +little sand bar in the Big River, his great, soft, beautiful eyes +watched first one bank and then the other. On the bank he had left, he +could see two black-and-white specks moving about, and across the water +came the barking of dogs. Those two specks were the hounds who had +driven him into the Big River. They were barking now, instead of baying. +Presently a brown form joined the black-and-white specks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[pg 117]</a></span> It was a +hunter drawn there by the barking of the dogs. He was too far away to be +dangerous, but the mere sight of him filled Lightfoot with terror again. +He watched the hunter walk along the bank and disappear in the bushes.</p> + +<p>Presently out of the bushes came a boat, and in it was the hunter. He +headed straight towards Lightfoot, and then Lightfoot knew that his +brief rest was at an end. He must once more swim or be shot by the +hunter in the boat. So Lightfoot again struck out for the shore. His +rest had given him new strength, but still he was very, very tired and +swimming was hard work.</p> + +<p>Slowly, oh so slowly, he drew nearer to the bank. What new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[pg 118]</a></span> dangers +might be waiting there, he did not know. He had never been on that side +of the Big River. He knew nothing of the country on that side. But the +uncertainty was better than the certainty behind him. He could hear the +sound of the oars as the hunter in the boat did his best to get to him +before he should reach the shore.</p> + +<p>On Lightfoot struggled. At last he felt bottom beneath his feet. He +staggered up through some bushes along the bank and then for an instant +it seemed to him his heart stopped beating. Right in front of him stood +a man. He had come out into the back yard of the home of that man. It is +doubtful which was the more surprised,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[pg 119]</a></span> Lightfoot or the man. Right then +and there Lightfoot gave up in despair. He couldn't run. It was all he +could do to walk. The long chase by the hounds on the other side of the +Big River and the long swim across the Big River had taken all his +strength.</p> + +<p>Not a spark of hope remained to Lightfoot. He simply stood still and +trembled, partly with fear and partly with weariness. Then a surprising +thing happened. The man spoke softly. He advanced, not threateningly but +slowly, and in a friendly way. He walked around back of Lightfoot and +then straight towards him. Lightfoot walked on a few steps, and the man +followed, still talking softly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[pg 120]</a></span> Little by little he urged Lightfoot on, +driving him towards an open shed in which was a pile of hay. Without +understanding just how, Lightfoot knew that he had found a friend. So he +entered the open shed and with a long sigh lay down in the soft hay.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[pg 121]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE HUNTER IS DISAPPOINTED</h3> + + +<p>How he knew he was safe, Lightfoot the Deer couldn't have told you. He +just knew it, that was all. He couldn't understand a word said by the +man in whose yard he found himself when he climbed the bank after his +long swim across the Big River. But he didn't have to understand words +to know that he had found a friend. So he allowed the man to drive him +gently over to an open shed where there was a pile of soft hay and there +he lay down, so tired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[pg 122]</a></span> that it seemed to him he couldn't move another +step.</p> + +<p>It was only a few minutes later that the hunter who had followed +Lightfoot across the River reached the bank and scrambled out of his +boat. Lightfoot's friend was waiting just at the top of the bank. Of +course the hunter saw him at once.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Friend!" cried the hunter. "Did you see a Deer pass this way a +few minutes ago? He swam across the river, and if I know anything about +it he's too tired to travel far now. I've been hunting that fellow for +several days, and if I have any luck at all I ought to get him this +time."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you won't have any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[pg 123]</a></span> luck at all," said Lightfoot's friend. +"You see, I don't allow any hunting on my land."</p> + +<p>The hunter looked surprised, and then his surprise gave way to anger. +"You mean," said he, "that you intend to get that Deer yourself."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot's friend shook his head. "No," said he, "I don't mean anything +of the kind. I mean that that Deer is not to be killed if I can prevent +it, and while it is on my land, I think I can. The best thing for you to +do, my friend, is to get into your boat and row back where you came +from. Are those your hounds barking over there?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied the hunter promptly. "I know the law just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[pg 124]</a></span> as well as you +do, and it is against the law to hunt Deer with dogs. I don't even know +who owns those two hounds over there."</p> + +<p>"That may be true," replied Lightfoot's friend. "I don't doubt it is +true. But you are willing to take advantage of the fact that the dogs of +some one else have broken the law. You knew that those dogs had driven +that Deer into the Big River and you promptly took advantage of the fact +to try to reach that Deer before he could get across. You are not +hunting for the pleasure of hunting but just to kill. You don't know the +meaning of justice or fairness. Now get off my land. Get back into your +boat and off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[pg 125]</a></span> my land as quick as you can. That Deer is not very far +from here and so tired that he cannot move. Just as long as he will stay +here, he will be safe, and I hope he will stay until this miserable +hunting season is ended. Now go."</p> + +<p>Muttering angrily, the hunter got back into his boat and pushed off, but +he didn't row back across the river.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[pg 126]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>THE HUNTER LIES IN WAIT</h3> + + +<p>If ever there was an angry hunter, it was the one who had followed +Lightfoot the Deer across the Big River. When he was ordered to get off +the land where Lightfoot had climbed out, he got back into his boat, but +he didn't row back to the other side. Instead, he rowed down the river, +finally landing on the same side but on land which Lightfoot's friend +did not own.</p> + +<p>"When that Deer has become rested he'll become uneasy," thought the +hunter. "He won't stay on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[pg 127]</a></span> that man's land. He'll start for the nearest +woods. I'll go up there and wait for him. I'll get that Deer if only to +spite that fellow back there who drove me off. Had it not been for him, +I'd have that Deer right now. He was too tired to have gone far. He's +got the handsomest pair of antlers I've seen for years. I can sell that +head of his for a good price."</p> + +<p>So the hunter tied his boat to a tree and once more climbed out. He +climbed up the bank and studied the land. Across a wide meadow he could +see a brushy old pasture and back of that some thick woods. He grinned.</p> + +<p>"That's where that Deer will head for," he decided. "There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[pg 128]</a></span> isn't any +other place for him to go. All I've got to do is be patient and wait."</p> + +<p>So the hunter took his terrible gun and tramped across the meadow to the +brush-grown pasture. There he hid among the bushes where he could peep +out and watch the land of Lightfoot's friend. He was still angry because +he had been prevented from shooting Lightfoot. At the same time he +chuckled, because he thought himself very smart. Lightfoot couldn't +possibly reach the shelter of the woods without giving him a shot, and +he hadn't the least doubt that Lightfoot would start for the woods just +as soon as he felt able to travel. So he made himself comfortable and +prepared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[pg 129]</a></span> to wait the rest of the day, if necessary.</p> + +<p>Now Lightfoot's friend who had driven the hunter off had seen him row +down the river and he had guessed just what was in that hunter's mind. +"We'll fool him," said he, chuckling to himself, as he walked back +towards the shed where poor Lightfoot was resting.</p> + +<p>He did not go too near Lightfoot, for he did not want to alarm him. He +just kept within sight of Lightfoot, paying no attention to him but +going about his work. You see, this man loved and understood the little +people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows, and he knew that there +was no surer way of winning Lightfoot's confi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[pg 130]</a></span>dence and trust than by +appearing to take no notice of him. Lightfoot, watching him, understood. +He knew that this man was a friend and would do him no harm. Little by +little, the wonderful, blessed feeling of safety crept over Lightfoot. No +hunter could harm him here.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[pg 131]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT DOES THE WISE THING</h3> + + +<p>All the rest of that day the hunter with the terrible gun lay hidden in +the bushes of the pasture where he could watch for Lightfoot the Deer to +leave the place of safety he had found. It required a lot of patience on +the part of the hunter, but the hunter had plenty of patience. It +sometimes seems as if hunters have more patience than any other people.</p> + +<p>But this hunter waited in vain. Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun sank down in +the west to his bed be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[pg 132]</a></span>hind the Purple Hills. The Black Shadows crept +out and grew blacker. One by one the stars began to twinkle. Still the +hunter waited, and still there was no sign of Lightfoot. At last it +became so dark that it was useless for the hunter to remain longer. +Disappointed and once more becoming angry, he tramped back to the Big +River, climbed into his boat and rowed across to the other side. Then he +tramped home and his thoughts were very bitter. He knew that he could +have shot Lightfoot had it not been for the man who had protected the +Deer. He even began to suspect that this man had himself killed +Lightfoot, for he had been sure that as soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[pg 133]</a></span> as he had become rested +Lightfoot would start for the woods, and Lightfoot had done nothing of +the kind. In fact, the hunter had not had so much as another glimpse of +Lightfoot.</p> + +<p>The reason that the hunter had been so disappointed was that Lightfoot +was smart. He was smart enough to understand that the man who was saving +him from the hunter had done it because he was a true friend. All the +afternoon Lightfoot had rested on a bed of soft hay in an open shed and +had watched this man going about his work and taking the utmost care to +do nothing to frighten Lightfoot.</p> + +<p>"He not only will let no one else harm me, but he himself will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[pg 134]</a></span> not harm +me," thought Lightfoot. "As long as he is near, I am safe. I'll stay +right around here until the hunting season is over, then I'll swim back +across the Big River to my home in the dear Green Forest."</p> + +<p>So all afternoon Lightfoot rested and did not so much as put his nose +outside that open shed. That is why the hunter got no glimpse of him. +When it became dark, so dark that he knew there was no longer danger, +Lightfoot got up and stepped out under the stars. He was feeling quite +himself again. His splendid strength had returned. He bounded lightly +across the meadow and up into the brushy pasture where the hunter had +been hidden. There and in the woods<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[pg 135]</a></span> back of the pasture he browsed, but +at the first hint of the coming of another day, Lightfoot turned back, +and when his friend, the farmer, came out early in the morning to milk +the cows, there was Lightfoot back in the open shed. The farmer smiled. +"You are as wise as you are handsome, old fellow," said he.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[pg 136]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>SAMMY JAY WORRIES</h3> + + +<p>It isn't often Sammy Jay worries about anybody but himself. Truth to +tell, he doesn't worry about himself very often. You see, Sammy is +smart, and he knows he is smart. Under that pointed cap of his are some +of the cleverest wits in all the Green Forest. Sammy seldom worries +about himself because he feels quite able to take care of himself.</p> + +<p>But Sammy Jay was worrying now. He was worrying about Lightfoot the +Deer. Yes, Sir,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[pg 137]</a></span> Sammy Jay was worrying about Lightfoot the Deer. For +two days he had been unable to find Lightfoot or any trace of Lightfoot. +But he did find plenty of hunters with terrible guns. It seemed to him +that they were everywhere in the Green Forest. Sammy began to suspect +that one of them must have succeeded in killing Lightfoot the Deer.</p> + +<p>Sammy knew all of Lightfoot's hiding-places. He visited every one of +them. Lightfoot wasn't to be found, and no one whom Sammy met had seen +Lightfoot for two days.</p> + +<p>Sammy felt badly. You see, he was very fond of Lightfoot. You remember +it was Sammy who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[pg 138]</a></span> warned Lightfoot of the coming of the hunter on the +morning when the dreadful hunting season began. Ever since the hunting +season had opened, Sammy had done his best to make trouble for the +hunters. Whenever he had found one of them he had screamed at the top of +his voice to warn every one within hearing just where that hunter was. +Once a hunter had lost his temper and shot at Sammy, but Sammy had +suspected that something of the kind might happen, and he had taken care +to keep just out of reach.</p> + +<p>Sammy had known all about the chasing of Lightfoot by the hounds. +Everybody in the Green Forest had known about it. You see, everybody had +heard the voices of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[pg 139]</a></span> hounds. Once, Lightfoot had passed right +under the tree in which Sammy was sitting, and a few moments later the +two hounds had passed with their noses to the ground as they followed +Lightfoot's trail. That was the last Sammy had seen of Lightfoot. He had +been able to save Lightfoot from the hunters, but he couldn't save him +from the hounds.</p> + +<p>The more Sammy thought things over, the more he worried. "I am afraid +those hounds drove him out where a hunter could get a shot and kill him, +or else that they tired him out and killed him themselves," thought +Sammy. "If he were alive, somebody certainly would have seen him and +nobody has, since the day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[pg 140]</a></span> those hounds chased him. I declare, I have +quite lost my appetite worrying about him. If Lightfoot is dead, and I +am almost sure he is, the Green Forest will never seem the same."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[pg 141]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE HUNTING SEASON ENDS</h3> + + +<p>The very worst things come to an end at last. No matter how bad a thing +is, it cannot last forever. So it was with the hunting season for +Lightfoot the Deer. There came a day when the law protected all Deer,—a +day when the hunters could no longer go searching for Lightfoot.</p> + +<p>Usually there was great rejoicing among the little people of the Green +Forest and the Green Meadows when the hunting season ended and they knew +that Light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[pg 142]</a></span>foot would be in no more danger until the next hunting +season. But this year there was no rejoicing. You see, no one could find +Lightfoot. The last seen of him was when he was running for his life +with two hounds baying on his trail and the Green Forest filled with +hunters watching for a chance to shoot him.</p> + +<p>Sammy Jay had hunted everywhere through the Green Forest. Blacky the +Crow, whose eyes are quite as sharp as those of Sammy Jay, had joined in +the search. They had found no trace of Lightfoot. Paddy the Beaver said +that for three days Lightfoot had not visited his pond for a drink. +Billy Mink, who travels up and down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[pg 143]</a></span> the Laughing Brook, had looked +for Lightfoot's footprints in the soft earth along the banks and had +found only old ones. Jumper the Hare had visited Lightfoot's favorite +eating places at night, but Lightfoot had not been in any of them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus-157.png" alt="[Illustration]" /> <a name="Illo4" id="Illo4"></a> +</div> +<div class="caption">"I tell you what it is," said Sammy Jay to<br /> +Bobby Coon, "something has happened to<br /> +Lightfoot." +</div> + +<p>"I tell you what it is," said Sammy Jay to Bobby Coon, "something has +happened to Lightfoot. Either those hounds caught him and killed him, or +he was shot by one of those hunters. The Green Forest will never be the +same without him. I don't think I shall want to come over here very +much. There isn't one of all the other people who live in the Green +Forest who would be missed as Lightfoot will be."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[pg 144]</a></span>Bobby Coon nodded. "That's true, Sammy," said he. "Without Lightfoot, +the Green Forest will never be the same. He never harmed anybody. Why +those hunters should have been so anxious to kill one so beautiful is +something I can't understand. For that matter, I don't understand why +they want to kill any of us. If they really needed us for food, it would +be a different matter, but they don't. Have you been up in the Old +Pasture and asked Old Man Coyote if he has seen anything of Lightfoot?"</p> + +<p>Sammy nodded. "I've been up there twice," said he. "Old Man Coyote has +been lying very low during the days, but nights he has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[pg 145]</a></span> done a lot of +traveling. You know Old Man Coyote has a mighty good nose, but not once +since the day those hounds chased Lightfoot has he found so much as a +tiny whiff of Lightfoot's scent. I thought he might have found the place +where Lightfoot was killed, but he hasn't, although he has looked for +it. Well, the hunting season for Lightfoot is over, but I am afraid it +has ended too late."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[pg 146]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>Mr. AND MRS. QUACK ARE STARTLED</h3> + + +<p>It was the evening of the day after the closing of the hunting season +for Lightfoot the Deer. Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind +the Purple Hills, and the Black Shadows had crept out across the Big +River. Mr. and Mrs. Quack were getting their evening meal among the +brown stalks of the wild rice along the edge of the Big River. They took +turns in searching for the rice grains in the mud. While Mrs. Quack +tipped up and seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[pg 147]</a></span> stand on her head as she searched in the mud +for rice, Mr. Quack kept watch for possible danger. Then Mrs. Quack took +her turn at keeping watch, while Mr. Quack stood on his head and hunted +for rice.</p> + +<p>It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful. There was not even a ripple on +the Big River. It was so quiet that they could hear the barking of a dog +at a farmhouse a mile away. They were far enough out from the bank to +have nothing to fear from Reddy Fox or Old Man Coyote. So they had +nothing to fear from any one save Hooty the Owl. It was for Hooty that +they took turns in watching. It was just the hour when Hooty likes best +to hunt.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[pg 148]</a></span>By and by they heard Hooty's hunting call. It was far away in the Green +Forest. Then Mr. and Mrs. Quack felt easier, and they talked in low, +contented voices. They felt that for a while at least there was nothing +to fear.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a little splash out in the Big River caught Mr. Quack's quick +ear. As Mrs. Quack brought her head up out of the water, Mr. Quack +warned her to keep quiet. Noiselessly they swam among the brown stalks +until they could see out across the Big River. There was another little +splash out there in the middle. It wasn't the splash made by a fish; it +was a splash made by something much bigger than any fish. Presently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[pg 149]</a></span> +they made out a silver line moving towards them from the Black Shadows. +They knew exactly what it meant. It meant that some one was out there in +the Big River moving towards them. Could it be a boat containing a +hunter?</p> + +<p>With their necks stretched high, Mr. and Mrs. Quack watched. They were +ready to take to their strong wings the instant they discovered danger. +But they did not want to fly until they were sure that it <i>was</i> danger +approaching. They were startled, very much startled.</p> + +<p>Presently they made out what looked like the branch of a tree moving +over the water towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[pg 150]</a></span> them. That was queer, very queer. Mr. Quack said +so. Mrs. Quack said so. Both were growing more and more suspicious. They +couldn't understand it at all, and it is always best to be suspicious of +things you cannot understand. Mr. and Mrs. Quack half lifted their wings +to fly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[pg 151]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED</h3> + + +<p>It was very mysterious. Yes, Sir, it was very mysterious. Mr. Quack +thought so. Mrs. Quack thought so. There, out in the Big River, in the +midst of the Black Shadows, was something which looked like the branch +of a tree. But instead of moving down the river, as the branch of a tree +would if it were floating, this was coming straight across the river as +if it were swimming. But how could the branch of a tree swim? That was +too much for Mr. Quack. It was too much for Mrs. Quack.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[pg 152]</a></span>So they sat perfectly still among the brown stalks of the wild rice +along the edge of the Big River, and not for a second did they take +their eyes from that strange thing moving towards them. They were ready +to spring into the air and trust to their swift wings the instant they +should detect danger. But they did not want to fly unless they had to. +Besides, they were curious. They were very curious indeed. They wanted +to find out what that mysterious thing moving through the water towards +them was.</p> + +<p>So Mr. and Mrs. Quack watched that thing that looked like a swimming +branch draw nearer and nearer, and the nearer it drew the more they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[pg 153]</a></span> +were puzzled, and the more curious they felt. If it had been the pond of +Paddy the Beaver instead of the Big River, they would have thought it +was Paddy swimming with a branch for his winter food pile. But Paddy the +Beaver was way back in his own pond, deep in the Green Forest, and they +knew it. So this thing became more and more of a mystery. The nearer it +came, the more nervous and anxious they grew, and at the same time the +greater became their curiosity.</p> + +<p>At last Mr. Quack felt that not even to gratify his curiosity would it +be safe to wait longer. He prepared to spring into the air, knowing that +Mrs. Quack would follow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[pg 154]</a></span> him. It was just then that a funny little sound +reached him. It was half snort, half cough, as if some one had sniffed +some water up his nose. There was something familiar about that sound. +Mr. Quack decided to wait a few minutes longer.</p> + +<p>"I'll wait," thought Mr. Quack, "until that thing, whatever it is, comes +out of those Black Shadows into the moonlight. Somehow I have a feeling +that we are in no danger."</p> + +<p>So Mr. and Mrs. Quack waited and watched. In a few minutes the thing +that looked like the branch of a tree came out of the Black Shadows into +the moonlight, and then the mystery was solved.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[pg 155]</a></span> It was a mystery no +longer. They saw that they had mistaken the antlers of Lightfoot the +Deer for the branch of a tree. Lightfoot was swimming across the Big +River on his way back to his home in the Green Forest. At once Mr. and +Mrs. Quack swam out to meet him and to tell him how glad they were that +he was alive and safe.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[pg 156]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<h3>A SURPRISING DISCOVERY</h3> + + +<p>Probably there was no happier Thanksgiving in all the Great World than +the Thanksgiving of Lightfoot the Deer, when the dreadful hunting season +ended and he was once more back in his beloved Green Forest with nothing +to fear. All his neighbors called on him to tell him how glad they were +that he had escaped and how the Green Forest would not have been the +same if he had not returned. So Lightfoot roamed about without fear and +was happy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[pg 157]</a></span> It seemed to him that he could not be happier. There was +plenty to eat and that blessed feeling of nothing to fear. What more +could any one ask? He began to grow sleek and fat and handsomer than +ever. The days were growing colder and the frosty air made him feel +good.</p> + +<p>Just at dusk one evening he went down to his favorite drinking place at +the Laughing Brook. As he put down his head to drink he saw something +which so surprised him that he quite forgot he was thirsty. What do you +think it was he saw? It was a footprint in the soft mud. Yes, Sir, it +was a footprint.</p> + +<p>For a long time Lightfoot stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[pg 158]</a></span> staring at that footprint. In his +great, soft eyes was a look of wonder and surprise. You see, that +footprint was exactly like one of his own, only smaller. To Lightfoot it +was a very wonderful footprint. He was quite sure that never had he seen +such a dainty footprint. He forgot to drink. Instead, he began to search +for other footprints, and presently he found them. Each was as dainty as +that first one.</p> + +<p>Who could have made them? That is what Lightfoot wanted to know and what +he meant to find out. It was clear to him that there was a stranger in +the Green Forest, and somehow he didn't resent it in the least. In +fact,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[pg 159]</a></span> he was glad. He couldn't have told why, but it was true.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot put his nose to the footprints and sniffed of them. Even had +he not known by looking at those prints that they had been made by a +stranger, his nose would have told him this. A great longing to find the +maker of those footprints took possession of him. He lifted his handsome +head and listened for some slight sound which might show that the +stranger was near. With his delicate nostrils he tested the wandering +little Night Breezes for a stray whiff of scent to tell him which way to +go. But there was no sound and the wandering little Night Breezes told +him nothing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[pg 160]</a></span> Lightfoot followed the dainty footprints up the bank. +There they disappeared, for the ground was hard. Lightfoot paused, +undecided which way to go.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[pg 161]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT SEES THE STRANGER</h3> + + +<p>Lightfoot the Deer was unhappy. It was a strange unhappiness, an +unhappiness such as he had never known before. You see, he had +discovered that there was a stranger in the Green Forest, a stranger of +his own kind, another Deer. He knew it by dainty footprints in the mud +along the Laughing Brook and on the edge of the pond of Paddy the +Beaver. He knew it by other signs which he ran across every now and +then. But search as he would, he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[pg 162]</a></span> unable to find that newcomer. He +had searched everywhere but always he was just too late. The stranger +had been and gone.</p> + +<p>Now there was no anger in Lightfoot's desire to find that stranger. +Instead, there was a great longing. For the first time in his life +Lightfoot felt lonely. So he hunted and hunted and was unhappy. He lost +his appetite. He slept little. He roamed about uneasily, looking, +listening, testing every Merry Little Breeze, but all in vain.</p> + +<p>Then, one never-to-be-forgotten night, as he drank at the Laughing +Brook, a strange feeling swept over him. It was the feeling of being +watched. Lightfoot lifted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[pg 163]</a></span> his beautiful head and a slight movement +caught his quick eye and drew it to a thicket not far away. The silvery +light of gentle Mistress Moon fell full on that thicket, and thrust out +from it was the most beautiful head in all the Great World. At least, +that is the way it seemed to Lightfoot, though to tell the truth it was +not as beautiful as his own, for it was uncrowned by antlers. For a long +minute Lightfoot stood gazing. A pair of wonderful, great, soft eyes +gazed back at him. Then that beautiful head disappeared.</p> + +<p>With a mighty bound, Lightfoot cleared the Laughing Brook and rushed +over to the thicket in which that beautiful head had dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[pg 164]</a></span>appeared. He +plunged in, but there was no one there. Frantically he searched, but +that thicket was empty. Then he stood still and listened. Not a sound +reached him. It was as still as if there were no other living things in +all the Green Forest. The beautiful stranger had slipped away as +silently as a shadow.</p> + +<p>All the rest of that night Lightfoot searched through the Green Forest +but his search was in vain. The longing to find that beautiful stranger +had become so great that he fairly ached with it. It seemed to him that +until he found her he could know no happiness.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[pg 165]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>A DIFFERENT GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK</h3> + + +<p>Once more Lightfoot the Deer was playing hide and seek in the Green +Forest. But it was a very different game from the one he had played just +a short time before. You remember that then it had been for his life +that he had played, and he was the one who had done all the hiding. Now, +he was "it", and some one else was doing the hiding. Instead of the +dreadful fear which had filled him in that other game, he was now filled +with longing,—longing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[pg 166]</a></span> find and make friends with the beautiful +stranger of whom he had just once caught a glimpse, but of whom every +day he found tracks.</p> + +<p>At times Lightfoot would lose his temper. Yes, Sir, Lightfoot would lose +his temper. That was a foolish thing to do, but it seemed to him that he +just couldn't help it. He would stamp his feet angrily and thrash the +bushes with his great spreading antlers as if they were an enemy with +whom he was fighting. More than once when he did this a pair of great, +soft, gentle eyes were watching him, though he didn't know it. If he +could have seen them and the look of admiration in them, he would have +been more eager<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[pg 167]</a></span> than ever to find that beautiful stranger.</p> + +<p>At other times Lightfoot would steal about through the Green Forest as +noiselessly as a shadow. He would peer into thickets and behind tangles +of fallen trees and brush piles, hoping to surprise the one he sought. +He would be very, very patient. Perhaps he would come to the thicket +which he knew from the signs the stranger had left only a few moments +before. Then his patience would vanish in impatience, and he would dash +ahead, eager to catch up with the shy stranger. But always it was in +vain. He had thought himself very clever but this stranger was proving +herself more clever.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[pg 168]</a></span>Of course it wasn't long before all the little people in the Green +Forest knew what was going on. They knew all about that game of hide and +seek just as they had known all about that other game of hide and seek +with the hunters. But now, instead of trying to help Lightfoot as they +did then, they gave him no help at all. The fact is, they were enjoying +that game. Mischievous Sammy Jay even went so far as to warn the +stranger several times when Lightfoot was approaching. Of course +Lightfoot knew when Sammy did this, and each time he lost his temper. +For the time being, he quite forgot all that Sammy had done for him when +he was the one that was being hunted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[pg 169]</a></span>Once Lightfoot almost ran smack into Buster Bear and was so provoked by +his own carelessness that instead of bounding away he actually +threatened to fight Buster. But when Buster grinned good-naturedly at +him, Lightfoot thought better of it and bounded away to continue his +search.</p> + +<p>Then there were times when Lightfoot would sulk and would declare over +and over to himself, "I don't care anything about that stranger. I won't +spend another minute looking for her," And then within five minutes he +would be watching, listening and seeking some sign that she was still in +the Green Forest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[pg 170]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + +<h3>A STARTLING NEW FOOTPRINT</h3> + + +<p>The game of hide and seek between Lightfoot the Deer and the beautiful +stranger whose dainty footprints had first started Lightfoot to seeking +her had been going on for several days and nights when Lightfoot found +something which gave him a shock. He had stolen very softly down to the +Laughing Brook, hoping to surprise the beautiful stranger drinking +there. She wasn't to be seen. Lightfoot wondered if she had been there, +so looked in the mud at the edge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[pg 171]</a></span> of the Laughing Brook to see if there +were any fresh prints of those dainty feet. Almost at once he discovered +fresh footprints. They were not the prints he was looking for. No, Sir, +they were not the dainty prints he had learned to know so well. They +were prints very near the size of his own big ones, and they had been +made only a short time before.</p> + +<p>The finding of those prints was a dreadful shock to Lightfoot. He +understood instantly what they meant. They meant that a second stranger +had come into the Green Forest, one who had antlers like his own. +Jealousy took possession of Lightfoot the Deer;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[pg 172]</a></span> jealousy that filled +his heart with rage.</p> + +<p>"He has come here to seek that beautiful stranger I have been hunting +for," thought Lightfoot. "He has come here to try to steal her away from +me. He has no right here in my Green Forest. He belongs back up on the +Great Mountain from which he must have come, for there is no other place +he could have come from. That is where that beautiful stranger must have +come from, too. I want her to stay, but I must drive this fellow out. +I'll make him fight. That's what I'll do; I'll make him fight! I'm not +afraid of him, but I'll make him fear me."</p> + +<p>Lightfoot stamped his feet and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[pg 173]</a></span> with his great antlers thrashed the +bushes as if he felt that they were the enemy he sought. Could you have +looked into his great eyes then, you would have found nothing soft and +beautiful about them. They became almost red with anger. Lightfoot +quivered all over with rage. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. +Lightfoot the Deer looked anything but gentle.</p> + +<p>After he had vented his spite for a few minutes on the harmless, +helpless bushes, he threw his head high in the air and whistled angrily. +Then he leaped over the Laughing Brook and once more began to search +through the Green Forest. But this time it was not for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[pg 174]</a></span> beautiful +stranger with the dainty feet. He had no time to think of her now. He +must first find this newcomer and he meant to waste no time in doing +it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[pg 175]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT IS RECKLESS</h3> + + +<p>In his search for the new stranger who had come to the Green Forest, +Lightfoot the Deer was wholly reckless. He no longer stole like a gray +shadow from thicket to thicket as he had done when searching for the +beautiful stranger with the dainty feet. He bounded along, careless of +how much noise he made. From time to time he would stop to whistle a +challenge and to clash his horns against the trees and stamp the ground +with his feet.</p> + +<p>After such exhibitions of anger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[pg 176]</a></span> he would pause to listen, hoping to +hear some sound which would tell him where the stranger was. Now and +then he found the stranger's tracks, and from them he knew that this +stranger was doing just what he had been doing, seeking to find the +beautiful newcomer with the dainty feet. Each time he found these signs +Lightfoot's rage increased.</p> + +<p>Of course it didn't take Sammy Jay long to discover what was going on. +There is little that escapes those sharp eyes of Sammy Jay. As you know, +he had early discovered the game of hide and seek Lightfoot had been +playing with the beautiful young visitor who had come down to the Green<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[pg 177]</a></span> +Forest from the Great Mountain. Then, by chance, Sammy had visited the +Laughing Brook just as the big stranger had come down there to drink. +For once Sammy had kept his tongue still. "There is going to be +excitement here when Lightfoot discovers this fellow," thought Sammy. +"If they ever meet, and I have a feeling that they will, there is going +to be a fight worth seeing. I must pass the word around."</p> + +<p>So Sammy Jay hunted up his cousin, Blacky the Crow, and told him what he +had discovered. Then he hunted up Bobby Coon and told him. He saw Unc' +Billy Possum sitting in the doorway of his hollow tree and told him. He +discovered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[pg 178]</a></span> Jumper the Hare sitting under a little hemlock-tree and told +him. Then he flew over to the dear Old Briar-patch to tell Peter Rabbit. +Of course he told Drummer the Woodpecker, Tommy Tit the Chickadee, and +Yank Yank the Nuthatch, who were over in the Old Orchard, and they at +once hurried to the Green Forest, for they couldn't think of missing +anything so exciting as would be the meeting between Lightfoot and the +big stranger from the Great Mountain.</p> + +<p>Sammy didn't forget to tell Paddy the Beaver, but it was no news to +Paddy. Paddy had seen the big stranger on the edge of his pond early the +night before.</p> + +<p>Of course, Lightfoot knew noth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[pg 179]</a></span>ing about all this. His one thought was +to find that big stranger and drive him from the Green Forest, and so he +continued his search tirelessly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[pg 180]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> + +<h3>SAMMY JAY TAKES A HAND</h3> + + +<p>Sammy Jay was bubbling over with excitement as he flew about through the +Green Forest, following Lightfoot the Deer. He was so excited he wanted +to scream. But he didn't. He kept his tongue still. You see, he didn't +want Lightfoot to know that he was being followed. Under that pointed +cap of Sammy Jay's are quick wits. It didn't take him long to discover +that the big stranger whom Lightfoot was seeking was doing his best to +keep out of Lightfoot's way and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[pg 181]</a></span> that he was having no difficulty in +doing so because of the reckless way in which Lightfoot was searching +for him. Lightfoot made so much noise that it was quite easy to know +just where he was and to keep out of his sight.</p> + +<p>"That stranger is nearly as big as Lightfoot, but it is very plain that +he doesn't want to fight," thought Sammy. "He must be a coward."</p> + +<p>Now the truth is, the stranger was not a coward. He was ready and +willing to fight if he had to, but if he could avoid fighting he meant +to. You see, big as he was, he wasn't quite so big as Lightfoot, and he +knew it. He had seen Lightfoot's big footprints, and from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[pg 182]</a></span> their size he +knew that Lightfoot must be bigger and heavier than he. Then, too, he +knew that he really had no right to be there in the Green Forest. That +was Lightfoot's home and so he was an intruder. He knew that Lightfoot +would feel this way about it and that this would make him fight all the +harder. So the big stranger wanted to avoid a fight if possible. But he +wanted still more to find that beautiful young visitor with the dainty +feet for whom Lightfoot had been looking. He wanted to find her just as +Lightfoot wanted to find her, and he hoped that if he did find her, he +could take her away with him back to the Great Mountain. If he had to, +he would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[pg 183]</a></span> fight for her, but until he had to he would keep out of the +fight. So he dodged Lightfoot and at the same time looked for the +beautiful stranger.</p> + +<p>All this Sammy Jay guessed, and after a while he grew tired of following +Lightfoot for nothing. "I'll have to take a hand in this thing myself," +muttered Sammy. "At this rate, Lightfoot never will find that big +stranger!"</p> + +<p>So Sammy stopped following Lightfoot and began to search through the +Green Forest for the big stranger. It didn't take very long to find him. +He was over near the pond of Paddy the Beaver. As soon as he saw him, +Sammy began to scream at the top of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[pg 184]</a></span> lungs. At once he heard the +sound of snapping twigs at the top of a little ridge back of Paddy's +pond and knew that Lightfoot had heard and understood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[pg 185]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> + +<h3>THE GREAT FIGHT</h3> + + +<p>Down from the top of the ridge back of the pond of Paddy the Beaver +plunged Lightfoot the Deer, his eyes blazing with rage. He had +understood the screaming of Sammy Jay. He knew that somewhere down there +was the big stranger he had been looking for.</p> + +<p>The big stranger had understood Sammy's screaming quite as well as +Lightfoot. He knew that to run away now would be to prove himself a +coward and forever disgrace himself in the eyes of Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[pg 186]</a></span> Daintyfoot, for +that was the name of the beautiful stranger he had been seeking. He +<i>must</i> fight. There was no way out of it, he <i>must</i> fight. The hair on +the back of his neck stood up with anger just as did the hair on the +neck of Lightfoot. His eyes also blazed. He bounded out into a little +open place by the pond of Paddy the Beaver and there he waited.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Sammy Jay was flying about in the greatest excitement, +screaming at the top of his lungs, "A fight! A fight! A fight!" Blacky +the Crow, over in another part of the Green Forest, heard him and took +up the cry and at once hurried over to Paddy's pond. Everybody who was +near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[pg 187]</a></span> enough hurried there. Bobby Coon and Unc' Billy Possum climbed +trees from which they could see and at the same time be safe. Billy Mink +hurried to a safe place on the dam of Paddy the Beaver. Paddy himself +climbed up on the roof of his house out in the pond. Peter Rabbit and +Jumper the Hare, who happened to be not far away, hurried over where +they could peep out from under some young hemlock-trees. Buster Bear +shuffled down the hill and watched from the other side of the pond. +Reddy and Granny Fox were both there.</p> + +<p>For what seemed like the longest time, but which was for only a minute, +Lightfoot and the big stranger stood still, glaring at each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[pg 188]</a></span> other. +Then, snorting with rage, they lowered their heads and plunged together. +Their antlers clashed with a noise that rang through the Green Forest, +and both fell to their knees. There they pushed and struggled. Then they +separated and backed away, to repeat the movement over again. It was a +terrible fight. Everybody said so. If they had not known before, +everybody knew now what those great antlers were for. Once the big +stranger managed to reach Lightfoot's right shoulder with one of the +sharp points of his antlers and made a long tear in Lightfoot's gray +coat. It only made Lightfoot fight harder.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they would rear up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[pg 189]</a></span> and strike with their sharp hoofs. Back +and forth they plunged, and the ground was torn up by their feet. Both +were getting out of breath, and from time to time they had to stop for a +moment's rest. Then they would come together again more fiercely than +ever. Never had such a fight been seen in the Green Forest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[pg 190]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> + +<h3>AN UNSEEN WATCHER</h3> + + +<p>As Lightfoot the Deer and the big stranger from the Great Mountain +fought in the little opening near the pond of Paddy the Beaver, neither +knew or cared who saw them. Each was filled fully with rage and +determined to drive the other from the Green Forest. Each was fighting +for the right to win the love of Miss Daintyfoot.</p> + +<p>Neither of them knew that Miss Daintyfoot herself was watching them. But +she was. She had heard the clash of their great ant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[pg 191]</a></span>lers as they had +come together the first time, and she had known exactly what it meant. +Timidly she had stolen forward to a thicket where, safely hidden, she +could watch that terrible fight. She knew that they were fighting for +her. Of course. She knew it just as she had known how both had been +hunting for her. What she didn't know for some time was which one she +wanted to win that fight.</p> + +<p>Both Lightfoot and the big stranger were handsome. Yes, indeed, they +were very handsome. Lightfoot was just a little bit the bigger and it +seemed to her just a little bit the handsomer. She almost wanted him to +win. Then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[pg 192]</a></span> when she saw how bravely the big stranger was fighting and +how well he was holding his own, even though he was a little smaller +than Lightfoot, she almost hoped he would win.</p> + +<p>That great fight lasted a long time. To pretty Miss Daintyfoot it seemed +that it never would end. But after a while Lightfoot's greater size and +strength began to tell. Little by little the big stranger was forced +back towards the edge of the open place. Now he would be thrown to his +knees when Lightfoot wasn't. As Lightfoot saw this, he seemed to gain +new strength. At last he caught the stranger in such a way that he threw +him over. While the stranger struggled to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[pg 193]</a></span> get to his feet again, +Lightfoot's sharp antlers made long tears in his gray coat. The stranger +was beaten and he knew it. The instant he succeeded in getting to his +feet he turned tail and plunged for the shelter of the Green Forest. +With a snort of triumph, Lightfoot plunged after him.</p> + +<p>But now that he was beaten, fear took possession of the stranger. All +desire to fight left him. His one thought was to get away, and fear gave +him speed. Straight back towards the Great Mountain from which he had +come the stranger headed. Lightfoot followed only a short distance. He +knew that that stranger was going for good and would not come back. +Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[pg 194]</a></span> Lightfoot turned back to the open place where they had fought. +There he threw up his beautiful head, crowned by its great antlers, and +whistled a challenge to all the Green Forest. As she looked at him, Miss +Daintyfoot knew that she had wanted him to win. She knew that there +simply couldn't be anybody else so handsome and strong and brave in all +the Great World.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[pg 195]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2> + +<h3>LIGHTFOOT DISCOVERS LOVE</h3> + + +<p>Wonderfully handsome was Lightfoot the Deer as he stood in the little +opening by the pond of Paddy the Beaver, his head thrown back proudly, +as he received the congratulations of his neighbors of the Green Forest +who had seen him win the great fight with the big stranger who had come +down from the Great Mountain. To beautiful Miss Daintyfoot, peeping out +from the thicket where she had hidden to watch the great fight, +Lightfoot was the most wonderful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[pg 196]</a></span> person in all the Great World. She +adored him, which means that she loved him just as much as it was +possible for her to love.</p> + +<p>But Lightfoot didn't know this. In fact, he didn't know that Miss +Daintyfoot was there. His one thought had been to drive out of the Green +Forest the big stranger who had come down from the Great Mountain. He +had been jealous of that big stranger, though he hadn't known that he +was jealous. The real cause of his anger and desire to fight had been +the fear that the big stranger would find Miss Daintyfoot and take her +away. Of course this was nothing but jealousy.</p> + +<p>Now that the great fight was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[pg 197]</a></span> over, and he knew that the big stranger +was hurrying back to the Great Mountain, all Lightfoot's anger melted +away. In its place was a great longing to find Miss Daintyfoot. His +great eyes became once more soft and beautiful. In them was a look of +wistfulness. Lightfoot walked down to the edge of the water and drank, +for he was very, very thirsty. Then he turned, intending to take up once +more his search for beautiful Miss Daintyfoot.</p> + +<p>When he turned he faced the thicket in which Miss Daintyfoot was hiding. +His keen eyes caught a little movement of the branches. A beautiful head +was slowly thrust out, and Lightfoot gazed again into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[pg 198]</a></span> a pair of soft +eyes which he was sure were the most beautiful eyes in all the Great +World. He wondered if she would disappear and run away as she had the +last time he saw her.</p> + +<p>He took a step or two forward. The beautiful head was withdrawn. +Lightfoot's heart sank. Then he bounded forward into that thicket. He +more than half expected to find no one there, but when he entered that +thicket he received the most wonderful surprise in all his life. There +stood Miss Daintyfoot, timid, bashful, but with a look in her eyes which +Lightfoot could not mistake. In that instant Lightfoot understood the +meaning of that longing which had kept him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[pg 199]</a></span> hunting for her and of the +rage which had filled him when he had discovered the presence of the big +stranger from the Great Mountain. It was love. Lightfoot knew that he +loved Miss Daintyfoot and, looking into her soft, gentle eyes, he knew +that Miss Daintyfoot loved him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[pg 200]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL</h2> + +<h3>HAPPY DAYS IN THE GREEN FOREST</h3> + + +<p>These were happy days in the Green Forest. At least, they were happy for +Lightfoot the Deer. They were the happiest days he had ever known. You +see, he had won beautiful, slender, young Miss Daintyfoot, and now she +was no longer Miss Daintyfoot but Mrs. Lightfoot. Lightfoot was sure +that there was no one anywhere so beautiful as she, and Mrs. Lightfoot +knew that there was no one so handsome and brave as he.</p> + +<p>Wherever Lightfoot went, Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[pg 201]</a></span> Lightfoot went. He showed her all his +favorite hiding-places. He led her to his favorite eating-places. She +did not tell him that she was already acquainted with every one of them, +that she knew the Green Forest quite as well as he did. If he had +stopped to think how day after day she had managed to keep out of his +sight while he hunted for her, he would have realized that there was +little he could show her which she did not already know. But he didn't +stop to think and proudly led her from place to place. And Mrs. +Lightfoot wisely expressed delight with all she saw quite as if it were +all new.</p> + +<p>Of course, all the little people of the Green Forest hurried to pay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[pg 202]</a></span> +their respects to Mrs. Lightfoot and to tell Lightfoot how glad they +felt for him. And they really did feel glad. You see, they all loved +Lightfoot and they knew that now he would be happier than ever, and that +there would be no danger of his leaving the Green Forest because of +loneliness. The Green Forest would not be the same at all without +Lightfoot the Deer.</p> + +<p>Lightfoot told Mrs. Lightfoot all about the terrible days of the hunting +season and how glad he was that she had not been in the Green Forest +then. He told her how the hunters with terrible guns had given him no +rest and how he had had to swim the Big River to get away from the +hounds.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[pg 203]</a></span>"I know," replied Mrs. Lightfoot softly. "I know all about it. You see, +there were hunters on the Great Mountain. In fact, that is how I +happened to come down to the Green Forest. They hunted me so up there +that I did not dare stay, and I came down here thinking that there might +be fewer hunters. I wouldn't have believed that I could ever be thankful +to hunters for anything, but I am, truly I am."</p> + +<p>There was a puzzled look on Lightfoot's face. "What for?" he demanded. +"I can't imagine anybody being thankful to hunters for anything."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you stupid," cried Mrs. Lightfoot. "Don't you see that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[pg 204]</a></span> if I hadn't +been driven down from the Great Mountain, I never would have found +<i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>"You mean, I never would have found <i>you</i>," retorted Lightfoot. "I guess +I owe these hunters more than you do. I owe them the greatest happiness +I have ever known, but I never would have thought of it myself. Isn't it +queer how things which seem the very worst possible sometimes turn out +to be the very best possible?"</p> + +<p>Blacky the Crow is one of Lightfoot's friends, but sometimes even +friends are envious. It is so with Blacky. He insists that he is quite +as important in the Green Forest as is Lightfoot and that his doings are +quite as interesting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[pg 205]</a></span> Therefore just to please him the next book is to +be Blacky the Crow.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer, by +Thornton W. Burgess + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF LIGHTFOOT *** + +***** This file should be named 19079-h.htm or 19079-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/7/19079/ + +Produced by Joseph R. 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Burgess + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer + +Author: Thornton W. Burgess + +Illustrator: Harrison Cady + +Release Date: August 19, 2006 [EBook #19079] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF LIGHTFOOT *** + + + + +Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Juliet Sutherland and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Wonderfully handsome was + Lightfoot the Deer.] + + + + +LIGHTFOOT THE DEER + + + +BY + +THORNTON W. BURGESS + + + +_With Illustrations by_ +_HARRISON CADY_ + + + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP + +Publishers New York + +_Printed by arrangement with Little, Brown, and Company_ + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1921 BY THORNTON W. BURGESS + +ISBN: 0-448-02741-0 (TRADE EDITION) + +ISBN: 0-448-13721-6 (LIBRARY EDITION) + + + + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA +BY ARRANGEMENT WITH LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +Dedication + + TO THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF OUR + + FOUR-FOOTED FRIENDS IN THE GREEN FOREST + + WITH THE HOPE THAT THIS LITTLE VOLUME + + MAY IN SOME DEGREE AID IN THE + + PROTECTION OF THE INNOCENT + + AND HELPLESS + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I PETER RABBIT MEETS LIGHTFOOT 1 + + II LIGHTFOOT'S NEW ANTLERS 8 + + III LIGHTFOOT TELLS HOW HIS ANTLERS GREW 15 + + IV THE SPIRIT OF FEAR 22 + + V SAMMY JAY BRINGS LIGHTFOOT WORD 29 + + VI A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK 34 + + VII THE MERRY LITTLE BREEZES HELP LIGHTFOOT 39 + + VIII WIT AGAINST WIT 44 + + IX LIGHTFOOT BECOMES UNCERTAIN 49 + + X LIGHTFOOT'S CLEVER TRICK 53 + + XI THE HUNTED WATCHES THE HUNTER 58 + + XII LIGHTFOOT VISITS PADDY THE BEAVER 63 + + XIII LIGHTFOOT AND PADDY BECOME PARTNERS 68 + + XIV HOW PADDY WARNED LIGHTFOOT 73 + + XV THE THREE WATCHERS 78 + + XVI VISITORS TO PADDY'S POND 83 + + XVII SAMMY JAY ARRIVES 88 + + XVIII THE HUNTER LOSES HIS TEMPER 93 + + XIX SAMMY JAY IS MODEST 97 + + XX LIGHTFOOT HEARS A DREADFUL SOUND 102 + + XXI HOW LIGHTFOOT GOT RID OF THE HOUNDS 107 + + XXII LIGHTFOOT'S LONG SWIM 111 + + XXIII LIGHTFOOT FINDS A FRIEND 116 + + XXIV THE HUNTER IS DISAPPOINTED 121 + + XXV THE HUNTER LIES IN WAIT 126 + + XXVI LIGHTFOOT DOES THE WISE THING 131 + + XXVII SAMMY JAY WORRIES 136 + + XXVIII THE HUNTING SEASON ENDS 141 + + XXIX MR. AND MRS. QUACK ARE STARTLED 146 + + XXX THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED 151 + + XXXI A SURPRISING DISCOVERY 156 + + XXXII LIGHTFOOT SEES THE STRANGER 161 + + XXXIII A DIFFERENT GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK 165 + + XXXIV A STARTLING NEW FOOTPRINT 170 + + XXXV LIGHTFOOT IS RECKLESS 175 + + XXXVI SAMMY JAY TAKES A HAND 180 + + XXXVII THE GREAT FIGHT 185 + + XXXVIII AN UNSEEN WATCHER 190 + + XXXIX LIGHTFOOT DISCOVERS LOVE 195 + + XL HAPPY DAYS IN THE GREEN FOREST 200 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + Wonderfully handsome was Lightfoot + the Deer. Frontispiece + + + FACING PAGE + + "I don't understand these men creatures," + said Peter to little Mrs. Peter. 28 + + "My, but that's a beautiful set of antlers + you have!" 71 + + "I tell you what it is," said Sammy + Jay to Bobby Coon, "something + has happened to Lightfoot." 143 + + + + +LIGHTFOOT THE DEER + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PETER RABBIT MEETS LIGHTFOOT + + +Peter Rabbit was on his way back from the pond of Paddy the Beaver deep +in the Green Forest. He had just seen Mr. and Mrs. Quack start toward +the Big River for a brief visit before leaving on their long, difficult +journey to the far-away Southland. Farewells are always rather sad, and +this particular farewell had left Peter with a lump in his throat,--a +queer, choky feeling. + +"If I were sure that they would return next spring, it wouldn't be so +bad," he muttered. "It's those terrible guns. I know what it is to have +to watch out for them. Farmer Brown's boy used to hunt me with one of +them, but he doesn't any more. But even when he did hunt me it wasn't +anything like what the Ducks have to go through. If I kept my eyes and +ears open, I could tell when a hunter was coming and could hide in a +hole if I wanted to. I never had to worry about my meals. But with the +Ducks it is a thousand times worse. They've got to eat while making that +long journey, and they can eat only where there is the right kind of +food. Hunters with terrible guns know where those places are and hide +there until the Ducks come, and the Ducks have no way of knowing +whether the hunters are waiting for them or not. That isn't hunting. +It's--it's--" + +"Well, what is it? What are you talking to yourself about, Peter +Rabbit?" + +Peter looked up with a start to find the soft, beautiful eyes of +Lightfoot the Deer gazing down at him over the top of a little hemlock +tree. + +"It's awful," declared Peter. "It's worse than unfair. It doesn't give +them any chance at all." + +"I suppose it must be so if you say so," replied Lightfoot, "but you +might tell me what all this awfulness is about." + +Peter grinned. Then he began at the beginning and told Lightfoot all +about Mr. and Mrs. Quack and the many dangers they must face on their +long journey to the far-away Southland and back again in the spring, all +because of the heartless hunters with terrible guns. Lightfoot listened +and his great soft eyes were filled with pity for the Quack family. + +"I hope they will get through all right," said he, "and I hope they will +get back in the spring. It is bad enough to be hunted by men at one time +of the year, as no one knows better than I do, but to be hunted in the +spring as well as in the fall is more than twice as bad. Men are strange +creatures. I do not understand them at all. None of the people of the +Green Forest would think of doing such terrible things. I suppose it is +quite right to hunt others in order to get enough to eat, though I am +thankful to say that I never have had to do that, but to hunt others +just for the fun of hunting is something I cannot understand at all. And +yet that is what men seem to do it for. I guess the trouble is they +never have been hunted themselves and don't know how it feels. Sometimes +I think I'll hunt one some day just to teach him a lesson. What are you +laughing at, Peter?" + +"At the idea of you hunting a man," replied Peter. "Your heart is all +right, Lightfoot, but you are too timid and gentle to frighten any one. +Big as you are I wouldn't fear you." + +With a single swift bound Lightfoot sprang out in front of Peter. He +stamped his sharp hoofs, lowered his handsome head until the sharp +points of his antlers, which people call horns, pointed straight at +Peter, lifted the hair along the back of his neck, and made a motion as +if to plunge at him. His eyes, which Peter had always thought so soft +and gentle, seemed to flash fire. + +"Oh!" cried Peter in a faint, frightened-sounding voice and leaped to +one side before it entered his foolish little head that Lightfoot was +just pretending. + +Lightfoot chuckled. "Did you say I couldn't frighten any one?" he +demanded. + +"I--I didn't know you could look so terribly fierce," stammered Peter. +"Those antlers look really dangerous when you point them that way. +Why--why--what is that hanging to them? It looks like bits of old fur. +Have you been tearing somebody's coat, Lightfoot?" Peter's eyes were +wide with wonder and suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +LIGHTFOOT'S NEW ANTLERS + + +Peter Rabbit was puzzled. He stared at Lightfoot the Deer a wee bit +suspiciously. "Have you been tearing somebody's coat?" he asked again. +He didn't like to think it of Lightfoot, whom he always had believed +quite as gentle, harmless, and timid as himself. But what else could he +think? + +Lightfoot slowly shook his head. "No," said he, "I haven't torn +anybody's coat." + +"Then what are those rags hanging on your antlers?" demanded Peter. + +Lightfoot chuckled. "They are what is left of the coverings of my new +antlers," he explained. + +"What's that? What do you mean by new antlers?" Peter was sitting up +very straight, with his eyes fixed on Lightfoot's antlers as though he +never had seen them before. + +"Just what I said," retorted Lightfoot. "What do you think of them? I +think they are the finest antlers I've ever had. When I get the rest of +those rags off, they will be as handsome a set as ever was grown in the +Green Forest." + +Lightfoot rubbed his antlers against the trunk of a tree till some of +the rags hanging to them dropped off. + +Peter blinked very hard. He was trying to understand and he couldn't. +Finally he said so. + +"What kind of a story are you trying to fill me up with?" he demanded +indignantly. "Do you mean to tell me that those are not the antlers that +you have had as long as I've known you? How can anything hard like those +antlers grow? And if those are new ones, where are the old ones? Show me +the old ones, and perhaps I'll believe that these are new ones. The idea +of trying to make me believe that antlers grow just like plants! I've +seen Bossy the Cow all summer and I know she has got the same horns she +had last summer. New antlers indeed!" + +"You are quite right, Peter, quite right about Bossy the Cow. She never +has new horns, but that isn't any reason why I shouldn't have new +antlers, is it?" replied Lightfoot patiently. "Her horns are quite +different from my antlers. I have a new pair every year. You haven't +seen me all summer, have you, Peter?" + +"No, I don't remember that I have," replied Peter, trying very hard to +remember when he had last seen Lightfoot. + +"I _know_ you haven't," retorted Lightfoot. "I know it because I have +been hiding in a place you never visit." + +"What have you been hiding for?" demanded Peter. + +"For my new antlers to grow," replied Lightfoot. "When my new antlers +are growing, I want to be away by myself. I don't like to be seen +without them or with half grown ones. Besides, I am very uncomfortable +while the new antlers are growing and I want to be alone." + +Lightfoot spoke as if he really meant every word he said, but still +Peter couldn't, he just _couldn't_ believe that those wonderful great +antlers had grown out of Lightfoot's head in a single summer. "Where did +you leave your old ones and when did they come off?" he asked, and there +was doubt in the very tone of his voice. + +"They dropped off last spring, but I don't remember just where," replied +Lightfoot. "I was too glad to be rid of them to notice where they +dropped. You see they were loose and uncomfortable, and I hadn't any +more use for them because I knew that my new ones would be bigger and +better. I've got one more point on each than I had last year." Lightfoot +began once more to rub his antlers against the tree to get off the queer +rags hanging to them and to polish the points. Peter watched in silence +for a few minutes. Then, all his suspicions returning, he said: + +"But you haven't told me anything about those rags hanging to your +antlers." + +"And you haven't believed what I have already told you," retorted +Lightfoot. "I don't like telling things to people who won't believe +me." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LIGHTFOOT TELLS HOW HIS ANTLERS GREW + + +It is hard to believe what seems impossible. And yet what seems +impossible to you may be a very commonplace matter to some one else. So +it does not do to say that a thing cannot be possible just because you +cannot understand how it can be. Peter Rabbit wanted to believe what +Lightfoot the Deer had just told him, but somehow he couldn't. If he had +seen those antlers growing, it would have been another matter. But he +hadn't seen Lightfoot since the very last of winter, and then Lightfoot +had worn just such handsome antlers as he now had. So Peter really +couldn't be blamed for not being able to believe that those old ones had +been lost and in their place new ones had grown in just the few months +of spring and summer. + +But Peter didn't blame Lightfoot in the least, because he had told Peter +that he didn't like to tell things to people who wouldn't believe what +he told them when Peter had asked him about the rags hanging to his +antlers. "I'm trying to believe it," he said, quite humbly. + +"It's all true," broke in another voice. + +Peter jumped and turned to find his big cousin, Jumper the Hare. Unseen +and unheard, he had stolen up and had overheard what Peter and Lightfoot +had said. + +"How do you know it is true?" snapped Peter a little crossly, for Jumper +had startled him. + +"Because I saw Lightfoot's old antlers after they had fallen off, and I +often saw Lightfoot while his new ones were growing," retorted Jumper. + +"All right! I'll believe anything that Lightfoot tells me if you say it +is true," declared Peter, who greatly admires his cousin, Jumper. "Now +tell me about those rags, Lightfoot. Please do." + +Lightfoot couldn't resist that "please." "Those rags are what is left +of a kind of covering which protected the antlers while they were +growing, as I told you before," said he. "Very soon after my old ones +dropped off the new ones began to grow. They were not hard, not at all +like they are now. They were soft and very tender, and the blood ran +through them just as it does through our bodies. They were covered with +a sort of skin with hairs on it like thin fur. The ends were not sharply +pointed as they now are, but were big and rounded, like knobs. They were +not like antlers at all, and they made my head hot and were very +uncomfortable. That is why I hid away. They grew very fast, so fast that +every day I could see by looking at my reflection in water that they +were a little longer. It seemed to me sometimes as if all my strength +went into those new antlers. And I had to be very careful not to hit +them against anything. In the first place it would have hurt, and in the +second place it might have spoiled the shape of them. + +"When they had grown to the length you now see, they began to shrink and +grow hard. The knobs on the ends shrank until they became pointed. As +soon as they stopped growing the blood stopped flowing up in them, and +as they became hard they were no longer tender. The skin which had +covered them grew dry and split, and I rubbed it off on trees and +bushes. The little rags you see are what is left, but I will soon be rid +of those. Then I shall be ready to fight if need be and will fear no one +save man, and will fear him only when he has a terrible gun with him." + +Lightfoot tossed his head proudly and rattled his wonderful antlers +against the nearest tree. "Isn't he handsome," whispered Peter to Jumper +the Hare; "and did you ever hear of anything so wonderful as the growing +of those new antlers in such a short time? It is hard to believe, but I +suppose it must be true." + +"It is," replied Jumper, "and I tell you, Peter, I would hate to have +Lightfoot try those antlers on me, even though I were big as a man. +You've always thought of Lightfoot as timid and afraid, but you should +see him when he is angry. Few people care to face him then." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SPIRIT OF FEAR + + + When the days grow cold and the nights are clear, + There stalks abroad the spirit of fear. + + _Lightfoot the Deer._ + + +It is sad but true. Autumn is often called the sad time of the year, and +it _is_ the sad time. But it shouldn't be. Old Mother Nature never +intended that it should be. She meant it to be the _glad_ time. It is +the time when all the little people of the Green Forest and the Green +Meadows have got over the cares and worries of bringing up families and +teaching their children how to look out for themselves. It is the +season when food is plentiful, and every one is fat and is, or ought to +be, care free. It is the season when Old Mother Nature intended all her +little people to be happy, to have nothing to worry them for the little +time before the coming of cold weather and the hard times which cold +weather always brings. + +But instead of this, a grim, dark figure goes stalking over the Green +Meadows and through the Green Forest, and it is called the Spirit of +Fear. It peers into every hiding-place and wherever it finds one of the +little people it sends little cold chills over him, little chills which +jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun cannot chase away, though he shine his +brightest. All night as well as all day the Spirit of Fear searches out +the little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. It will not +let them sleep. It will not let them eat in peace. It drives them to +seek new hiding-places and then drives them out of those. It keeps them +ever ready to fly or run at the slightest sound. + +Peter Rabbit was thinking of this as he sat at the edge of the dear Old +Briar-patch, looking over to the Green Forest. The Green Forest was no +longer just green; it was of many colors, for Old Mother Nature had set +Jack Frost to painting the leaves of the maple-trees and the +beech-trees, and the birch-trees and the poplar-trees and the +chestnut-trees, and he had done his work well. Very, very lovely were +the reds and yellows and browns against the dark green of the pines and +the spruces and the hemlocks. The Purple Hills were more softly purple +than at any other season of the year. It was all very, very beautiful. + +But Peter had no thought for the beauty of it all, for the Spirit of +Fear had visited even the dear Old Briar-patch, and Peter was afraid. It +wasn't fear of Reddy Fox, or Redtail the Hawk, or Hooty the Owl, or Old +Man Coyote. They were forever trying to catch him, but they did not +strike terror to his heart because he felt quite smart enough to keep +out of their clutches. To be sure, they gave him sudden frights +sometimes, when they happened to surprise him, but these frights lasted +only until he reached the nearest bramble-tangle or hollow log where +they could not get at him. But the fear that chilled his heart now never +left him even for a moment. + +And Peter knew that this same fear was clutching at the hearts of Bob +White, hiding in the brown stubble; of Mrs. Grouse, squatting in the +thickest bramble-tangle in the Green Forest; of Uncle Billy Possum and +Bobby Coon in their hollow trees; of Jerry Muskrat in the Smiling Pool; +of Happy Jack Squirrel, hiding in the tree tops; of Lightfoot the Deer, +lying in the closest thicket he could find. It was even clutching at the +hearts of Granny and Reddy Fox and of great, big Buster Bear. It seemed +to Peter that no one was so big or so small that this terrible Spirit of +Fear had not searched him out. + +Far in the distance sounded a sudden bang. Peter jumped and shivered. He +knew that every one else who had heard that bang had jumped and shivered +just as he had. It was the season of hunters with terrible guns. It was +man who had sent this terrible Spirit of Fear to chill the hearts of the +little meadow and forest people at this very time when Old Mother Nature +had made all things so beautiful and had intended that they should be +happiest and most free from care and worry. It was man who had made the +autumn a sad time instead of a glad time, the very saddest time of all +the year, when Old Mother Nature had done her best to make it the most +beautiful. + +"I don't understand these men creatures," said Peter to little Mrs. +Peter, as they stared fearfully out from the dear Old Briar-patch. "They +seem to find pleasure, actually find pleasure, in trying to kill us. I +don't understand them at all. They haven't any hearts. That must be the +reason; they haven't any hearts." + +[Illustration: "I don't understand these men creatures," + said Peter to little Mrs. Peter.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SAMMY JAY BRINGS LIGHTFOOT WORD + + +Sammy Jay is one of those who believe in the wisdom of the old saying, +"Early to bed and early to rise." Sammy needs no alarm clock to get up +early in the morning. He is awake as soon as it is light enough to see +and wastes no time wishing he could sleep a little longer. His stomach +wouldn't let him if he wanted to. Sammy always wakes up hungry. In this +he is no different from all his feathered neighbors. + +So the minute Sammy gets his eyes open he makes his toilet, for Sammy +is very neat, and starts out to hunt for his breakfast. Long ago Sammy +discovered that there is no safer time of day to visit the dooryards of +those two-legged creatures called men than very early in the morning. On +this particular morning he had planned to fly over to Farmer Brown's +dooryard, but at the last minute he changed his mind. Instead, he flew +over to the dooryard of another farm. It was so very early in the +morning that Sammy didn't expect to find anybody stirring, so you can +guess how surprised he was when, just as he came in sight of that +dooryard, he saw the door of the house open and a man step out. + +Sammy stopped on the top of the nearest tree. "Now what is that man +doing up as early as this?" muttered Sammy. Then he caught sight of +something under the man's arm. He didn't have to look twice to know what +it was. It was a gun! Yes, sir, it was a gun, a terrible gun. + +"Ha!" exclaimed Sammy, and quite forgot that his stomach was empty. "Now +who can that fellow be after so early in the morning? I wonder if he is +going to the dear Old Briar-patch to look for Peter Rabbit, or if he is +going to the Old Pasture in search of Reddy Fox, or if it is Mr. and +Mrs. Grouse he hopes to kill. I think I'll sit right here and watch." + +So Sammy sat in the top of the tree and watched the hunter with the +terrible gun. He saw him head straight for the Green Forest. "It's Mr. +and Mrs. Grouse after all, I guess," thought Sammy. "If I knew just +where they were I'd go over and warn them." But Sammy didn't know just +where they were and he knew that it might take him a long time to find +them, so he once more began to think of breakfast and then, right then, +another thought popped into his head. He thought of Lightfoot the Deer. + +Sammy watched the hunter enter the Green Forest, then he silently +followed him. From the way the hunter moved, Sammy decided that he +wasn't thinking of Mr. and Mrs. Grouse. "It's Lightfoot the Deer, sure +as I live," muttered Sammy. "He ought to be warned. He certainly ought +to be warned. I know right where he is. I believe I'll warn him myself." + +Sammy found Lightfoot right where he had expected to. "He's coming!" +cried Sammy. "A hunter with a terrible gun is coming!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK + + +There was a game of hide and seek that Danny Meadow Mouse once played +with Buster Bear. It was a very dreadful game for Danny. But hard as it +was for Danny, it didn't begin to be as hard as the game Lightfoot the +Deer was playing with the hunter in the Green Forest. + +In the case of Buster Bear and Danny, the latter had simply to keep out +of reach of Buster. As long as Buster didn't get his great paws on +Danny, the latter was safe. Then, too, Danny is a very small person. He +is so small that he can hide under two or three leaves. Wherever he is, +he is pretty sure to find a hiding-place of some sort. His small size +gives him advantages in a game of hide and seek. It certainly does. But +Lightfoot the Deer is big. He is one of the largest of the people who +live in the Green Forest. Being so big, it is not easy to hide. + +Moreover, a hunter with a terrible gun does not have to get close in +order to kill. Lightfoot knew all this as he waited for the coming of +the hunter of whom Sammy Jay had warned him. He had learned many lessons +in the hunting season of the year before and he remembered every one of +them. He knew that to forget even one of them might cost him his life. +So, standing motionless behind a tangle of fallen trees, Lightfoot +listened and watched. + +Presently over in the distance he heard Sammy Jay screaming, "Thief, +thief, thief!" A little sigh of relief escaped Lightfoot. He knew that +that screaming of Sammy Jay's was a warning to tell him where the hunter +was. Knowing just where the hunter was made it easier for Lightfoot to +know what to do. + +A Merry Little Breeze came stealing through the Green Forest. It came +from behind Lightfoot and danced on towards the hunter with the terrible +gun. Instantly Lightfoot began to steal softly away through the Green +Forest. He took the greatest care to make no sound. He went in a +half-circle, stopping every few steps to listen and test the air with +his wonderful nose. Can you guess what Lightfoot was trying to do? He +was trying to get behind the hunter so that the Merry Little Breezes +would bring to him the dreaded man-scent. So long as Lightfoot could get +that scent, he would know where the hunter was, though he could neither +see nor hear him. If he had remained where Sammy Jay had found him, the +hunter might have come within shooting distance before Lightfoot could +have located him. + +So the hunter with the terrible gun walked noiselessly through the Green +Forest, stepping with the greatest care to avoid snapping a stick +underfoot, searching with keen eye every thicket and likely hiding-place +for a glimpse of Lightfoot, and studying the ground for traces to show +that Lightfoot had been there. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MERRY LITTLE BREEZES HELP LIGHTFOOT + + +Could you have seen the hunter with the terrible gun and Lightfoot the +Deer that morning on which the hunting season opened you might have +thought that Lightfoot was hunting the hunter instead of the hunter +hunting Lightfoot. You see, Lightfoot was behind the hunter instead of +in front of him. He was following the hunter, so as to keep track of +him. As long as he knew just where the hunter was, he felt reasonably +safe. + +The Merry Little Breezes are Lightfoot's best friends. They always +bring to him all the different scents they find as they wander through +the Green Forest. And Lightfoot's delicate nose is so wonderful that he +can take these scents, even though they be very faint, and tell just who +or what has made them. So, though he makes the best possible use of his +big ears and his beautiful eyes, he trusts more to his nose to warn him +of danger. For this reason, during the hunting season when he moves +about, he moves in the direction from which the Merry Little Breezes may +be blowing. He knows that they will bring to him warning of any danger +which may lie in that direction. + +Now the hunter with the terrible gun who was looking for Lightfoot knew +all this, for he was wise in the ways of Lightfoot and of the other +little people of the Green Forest. When he had entered the Green Forest +that morning he had first of all made sure of the direction from which +the Merry Little Breezes were coming. Then he had begun to hunt in that +direction, knowing that thus his scent would be carried behind him. It +is more than likely that he would have reached the hiding-place of +Lightfoot the Deer before the latter would have known that he was in the +Green Forest, had it not been for Sammy Jay's warning. + +When he reached the tangle of fallen trees behind which Lightfoot had +been hiding, he worked around it slowly and with the greatest care, +holding his terrible gun ready to use instantly should Lightfoot leap +out. Presently he found Lightfoot's footprints in the soft ground and +studying them he knew that Lightfoot had known of his coming. + +"It was that confounded Jay," muttered the hunter. "Lightfoot heard him +and knew what it meant. I know what he has done; he has circled round so +as to get behind me and get my scent. It is a clever trick, a very +clever trick, but two can play at that game. I'll just try that little +trick myself." + +So the hunter in his turn made a wide circle back, and presently there +was none of the dreaded man-smell among the scents which the Merry +Little Breezes brought to Lightfoot. Lightfoot had lost track of the +hunter. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WIT AGAINST WIT + + +It was a dreadful game the hunter with the terrible gun and Lightfoot +the Deer were playing in the Green Forest. It was a matching of wit +against wit, the hunter seeking to take Lightfoot's life, and Lightfoot +seeking to save it. The experience of other years had taught Lightfoot +much of the ways of hunters and not one of the things he had learned +about them was forgotten. But the hunter in his turn knew much of the +ways of Deer. So it was that each was trying his best to outguess the +other. + +When the hunter found the hiding-place Lightfoot had left at the warning +of Sammy Jay he followed Lightfoot's tracks for a short distance. It was +slow work, and only one whose eyes had been trained to notice little +things could have done it. You see, there was no snow, and only now and +then, when he had stepped on a bit of soft ground, had Lightfoot left a +footprint. But there were other signs which the hunter knew how to +read,--a freshly upturned leaf here, and here, a bit of moss lightly +crushed. These things told the hunter which way Lightfoot had gone. + +Slowly, patiently, watchfully, the hunter followed. After a while he +stopped with a satisfied grin. "I thought as much," he muttered. "He +heard that pesky Jay and circled around so as to get my scent. I'll just +cut across to my old trail and unless I am greatly mistaken, I'll find +his tracks there." + +So, swiftly but silently, the hunter cut across to his old trail, and in +a few moments he found just what he expected,--one of Lightfoot's +footprints. Once more he grinned. + +"Well, old fellow, I've out-guessed you this time," said he to himself. +"I am behind you and the wind is from you to me, so that you cannot get +my scent. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you're back right where you +started from, behind that old windfall." He at once began to move +forward silently and cautiously, with eyes and ears alert and his +terrible gun ready for instant use. + +Now when Lightfoot, following behind the hunter, had lost the scent of +the latter, he guessed right away that the latter had found his tracks +and had started to follow them. Lightfoot stood still and listened with +all his might for some little sound to tell him where the hunter was. +But there was no sound and after a little Lightfoot began to move on. He +didn't dare remain still, lest the hunter should creep up within +shooting distance. There was only one direction in which it was safe for +Lightfoot to move, and that was the direction from which the Merry +Little Breezes were blowing. So long as they brought him none of the +dreaded man-smell, he knew that he was safe. The hunter might be behind +him--probably he was--but ahead of him, so long as the Merry Little +Breezes were blowing in his face and brought no man-smell, was safety. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LIGHTFOOT BECOMES UNCERTAIN + + +Lightfoot the Deer traveled on through the Green Forest, straight ahead +in the direction from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing. Every +few steps he would raise his delicate nose and test all the scents that +the Merry Little Breezes were bringing. So long as he kept the Merry +Little Breezes blowing in his face, he could be sure whether or not +there was danger ahead of him. + +Lightfoot uses his nose very much as you and I use our eyes. It tells +him the things he wants to know. He knew that Reddy Fox had been along +ahead of him, although he didn't get so much as a glimpse of Reddy's red +coat. Once he caught just the faintest of scents which caused him to +stop abruptly and test the air more carefully than ever. It was the +scent of Buster Bear. But it was so very faint that Lightfoot knew +Buster was not near, so he went ahead again, but even more carefully +than before. After a little he couldn't smell Buster at all, so he knew +then that Buster had merely passed that way when he was going to some +other part of the Green Forest. + +Lightfoot knew that he had nothing to fear in that direction so long as +the Merry Little Breezes brought him none of the dreaded man-scent, and +he knew that he could trust the Merry Little Breezes to bring him that +scent if there should be a man anywhere in front of him. You know the +Merry Little Breezes are Lightfoot's best friends. But Lightfoot didn't +want to keep going in that direction all day. + +It would take him far away from that part of the Green Forest with which +he was familiar and which he called home. It might in time take him out +of the Green Forest and that wouldn't do at all. So after a while +Lightfoot became uncertain. He didn't know just what to do. You see, he +couldn't tell whether or not that hunter with the terrible gun was +still following him. + +Every once in a while he would stop in a thicket of young trees or +behind a tangle of fallen trees uprooted by the wind. There he would +stand, facing the direction from which he had come, and watch and listen +for some sign that the hunter was still following. But after a few +minutes of this he would grow uneasy and then bound away in the +direction from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing, so as to be +sure of not running into danger. + +"If only I could know if that hunter is still following, I would know +better what to do," thought Lightfoot. "I've got to find out." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +LIGHTFOOT'S CLEVER TRICK + + +Lightfoot the Deer is smart. Yes, Sir, Lightfoot the Deer is smart. He +has to be, especially in the hunting season, to save his life. If he +were not smart he would have been killed long ago. He never makes the +foolish mistake of thinking that other people are not smart. He knew +that the hunter who had started out to follow him early that morning was +not one to be easily discouraged or to be fooled by simple tricks. He +had a very great respect for the smartness of that hunter. He knew that +he couldn't afford to be careless for one little minute. + +The certainty of danger is sometimes easier to bear than the uncertainty +of not knowing whether or not there really is any danger. Lightfoot felt +that if he could know just where the hunter was, he himself would know +better what to do. The hunter might have become discouraged and given up +following him. In that case he could rest and stop worrying. It would be +better to know that he was being followed than not to know. But how was +he to find out? Lightfoot kept turning this over and over in his mind as +he traveled through the Green Forest. Then an idea came to him. + +"I know what I'll do. I know just what I'll do," said Lightfoot to +himself. "I'll find out whether or not that hunter is still following me +and I'll get a little rest. Goodness knows, I need a rest." + +Lightfoot bounded away swiftly and ran for some distance, then he turned +and quickly, but very, very quietly, returned in the direction from +which he had just come but a little to one side of his old trail. After +a while he saw what he was looking for, a pile of branches which +woodchoppers had left when they had trimmed the trees they had cut down. +This was near the top of a little hill. Lightfoot went up the hill and +stopped behind the pile of brush. For a few moments he stood there +perfectly still, looking and listening. Then, with a little sigh of +relief, he lay down, where, without being in any danger of being seen +himself, he could watch his old trail through the hollow at the bottom +of the hill. If the hunter were still following him, he would pass +through that hollow in plain sight. + +For a long time Lightfoot rested comfortably behind the pile of brush. +There was not a suspicious movement or a suspicious sound to show that +danger was abroad in the Green Forest. He saw Mr. and Mrs. Grouse fly +down across the hollow and disappear among the trees on the other side. +He saw Unc' Billy Possum looking over a hollow tree and guessed that +Unc' Billy was getting ready to go into winter quarters. He saw Jumper +the Hare squat down under a low-hanging branch of a hemlock-tree and +prepare to take a nap. He heard Drummer the Woodpecker at work drilling +after worms in a tree not far away. Little by little Lightfoot grew easy +in his mind. It must be that that hunter had become discouraged and was +no longer following him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HUNTED WATCHES THE HUNTER + + +It was so quiet and peaceful and altogether lovely there in the Green +Forest, where Lightfoot the Deer lay resting behind a pile of brush near +the top of a little hill, that it didn't seem possible such a thing as +sudden death could be anywhere near. It didn't seem possible that there +could be any need for watchfulness. But Lightfoot long ago had learned +that often danger is nearest when it seems least to be expected. So, +though he would have liked very much to have taken a nap, Lightfoot was +too wise to do anything so foolish. He kept his beautiful, great, soft +eyes fixed in the direction from which the hunter with the terrible gun +would come if he were still following that trail. He kept his great ears +gently moving to catch every little sound. + +Lightfoot had about decided that the hunter had given up hunting for +that day, but he didn't let this keep him from being any the less +watchful. It was better to be overwatchful than the least bit careless. +By and by, Lightfoot's keen ears caught the sound of the snapping of a +little stick in the distance. It was so faint a sound that you or I +would have missed it altogether. But Lightfoot heard it and instantly +he was doubly alert, watching in the direction from which that faint +sound had come. After what seemed a long, long time he saw something +moving, and a moment later a man came into view. It was the hunter and +across one arm he carried the terrible gun. + +Lightfoot knew now that this hunter had patience and perseverance and +had not yet given up hope of getting near enough to shoot Lightfoot. He +moved forward slowly, setting each foot down with the greatest care, so +as not to snap a stick or rustle the leaves. He was watching sharply +ahead, ready to shoot should he catch a glimpse of Lightfoot within +range. + +Right along through the hollow at the foot of the little hill below +Lightfoot the hunter passed. He was no longer studying the ground for +Lightfoot's tracks, because the ground was so hard and dry down there +that Lightfoot had left no tracks. He was simply hunting in the +direction from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing because he +knew that Lightfoot had gone in that direction, and he also knew that if +Lightfoot were still ahead of him, his scent could not be carried to +Lightfoot. He was doing what is called "hunting up-wind." + +Lightfoot kept perfectly still and watched the hunter disappear among +the trees. Then he silently got to his feet, shook himself lightly, and +noiselessly stole away over the hilltop towards another part of the +Green Forest. He felt sure that that hunter would not find him again +that day. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LIGHTFOOT VISITS PADDY THE BEAVER + + +Deep in the Green Forest is the pond where lives Paddy the Beaver. It is +Paddy's own pond, for he made it himself. He made it by building a dam +across the Laughing Brook. + +When Lightfoot bounded away through the Green Forest, after watching the +hunter pass through the hollow below him, he remembered Paddy's pond. +"That's where I'll go," thought Lightfoot. "It is such a lonesome part +of the Green Forest that I do not believe that hunter will come there. +I'll just run over and make Paddy a friendly call." + +So Lightfoot bounded along deeper and deeper into the Green Forest. +Presently through the trees he caught the gleam of water. It was Paddy's +pond. Lightfoot approached it cautiously. He felt sure he was rid of the +hunter who had followed him so far that day, but he knew that there +might be other hunters in the Green Forest. He knew that he couldn't +afford to be careless for even one little minute. Lightfoot had lived +long enough to know that most of the sad things and dreadful things that +happen in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows are due to +carelessness. No one who is hunted, be he big or little, can afford ever +to be careless. + +Now Lightfoot had known of hunters hiding near water, hoping to shoot +him when he came to drink. That always seemed to Lightfoot a dreadful +thing, an unfair thing. But hunters had done it before and they might do +it again. So Lightfoot was careful to approach Paddy's pond up-wind. +That is, he approached the side of the pond from which the Merry Little +Breezes were blowing toward him, and all the time he kept his nose +working. He knew that if any hunters were hidden there, the Merry +Little Breezes would bring him their scent and thus warn him. + +He had almost reached the edge of Paddy's pond when from the farther +shore there came a sudden crash. It startled Lightfoot terribly for just +an instant. Then he guessed what it meant. That crash was the falling of +a tree. There wasn't enough wind to blow over even the most shaky dead +tree. There had been no sound of axes, so he knew it could not have been +chopped down by men. It must be that Paddy the Beaver had cut it, and if +Paddy had been working in daylight, it was certain that no one had been +around that pond for a long time. + +So Lightfoot hurried forward eagerly, cautiously. When he reached the +bank he looked across towards where the sound of that falling tree had +come from; a branch of a tree was moving along in the water and half +hidden by it was a brown head. It was Paddy the Beaver taking the branch +to his food pile. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LIGHTFOOT AND PADDY BECOME PARTNERS + + +The instant Lightfoot saw Paddy the Beaver he knew that for the time +being, at least, there was no danger. He knew that Paddy is one of the +shyest of all the little people of the Green Forest and that when he is +found working in the daytime it means that he has been undisturbed for a +long time; otherwise he would work only at night. + +Paddy saw Lightfoot almost as soon as he stepped out on the bank. He +kept right on swimming with the branch of a poplar-tree until he reached +his food pile, which, you know, is in the water. There he forced the +branch down until it was held by other branches already sunken in the +pond. This done, he swam over to where Lightfoot was watching. "Hello, +Lightfoot!" he exclaimed. "You are looking handsomer than ever. How are +you feeling these fine autumn days?" + +"Anxious," replied Lightfoot. "I am feeling terribly anxious. Do you +know what day this is?" + +"No," replied Paddy, "I don't know what day it is, and I don't +particularly care. It is enough for me that it is one of the finest +days we've had for a long time." + +"I wish I could feel that way," said Lightfoot wistfully. "I wish I +could feel that way, Paddy, but I can't. No, Sir, I can't. You see, this +is the first of the most dreadful days in all the year for me. The +hunters started looking for me before Mr. Sun was really out of bed. At +least one hunter did, and I don't doubt there are others. I fooled that +one, but from now to the end of the hunting season there will not be a +single moment of daylight when I will feel absolutely safe." + +Paddy crept out on the bank and chewed a little twig of poplar +thoughtfully. Paddy says he can always think better if he is chewing +something. "That's bad news, Lightfoot. I'm sorry to hear it. I +certainly am sorry to hear it," said Paddy. "Why anybody wants to hunt +such a handsome fellow as you are, I cannot understand. My, but that's a +beautiful set of antlers you have!" + +[Illustration: "My, but that's a beautiful set of antlers you have!"] + +"They are the best I've ever had; but do you know, Paddy, I suspect that +they may be one of the reasons I am hunted so," replied Lightfoot a +little sadly. "Good looks are not always to be desired. Have you seen +any hunters around here lately?" + +Paddy shook his head. "Not a single hunter," he replied. "I tell you +what it is, Lightfoot, let's be partners for a while. You stay right +around my pond. If I see or hear or smell anything suspicious, I'll warn +you. You do the same for me. Two sets of eyes, ears and noses are better +than one. What do you say, Lightfoot?" + +"I'll do it," replied Lightfoot. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +HOW PADDY WARNED LIGHTFOOT + + +It was a queer partnership, that partnership between Lightfoot and +Paddy, but it was a good partnership. They had been the best of friends +for a long time. Paddy had always been glad to have Lightfoot visit his +pond. To tell the truth, he was rather fond of handsome Lightfoot. You +know Paddy is himself not at all handsome. On land he is a rather +clumsy-looking fellow and really homely. So he admired Lightfoot +greatly. That is one reason why he proposed that they be partners. + +Lightfoot himself thought the idea a splendid one. He spent that night +browsing not far from Paddy's pond. With the coming of daylight he lay +down in a thicket of young hemlock-trees near the upper end of the pond. +It was a quiet, peaceful day. It was so quiet and peaceful and beautiful +it was hard to believe that hunters with terrible guns were searching +the Green Forest for beautiful Lightfoot. But they were, and Lightfoot +knew that sooner or later one of them would be sure to visit Paddy's +pond. So, though he rested and took short naps all through that +beautiful day, he was anxious. He couldn't help but be. + +The next morning found Lightfoot back in the same place. But this +morning he took no naps. He rested, but all the time he was watchful and +alert. A feeling of uneasiness possessed him. He felt in his bones that +danger in the shape of a hunter with a terrible gun was not far distant. + +But the hours slipped away, and little by little he grew less uneasy. He +began to hope that that day would prove as peaceful as the previous day +had been. Then suddenly there was a sharp report from the farther end of +Paddy's pond. It was almost like a pistol shot. However, it wasn't a +pistol shot. It wasn't a shot at all. It was the slap of Paddy's broad +tail on the surface of the water. Instantly Lightfoot was on his feet. +He knew just what that meant. He knew that Paddy had seen or heard or +smelled a hunter. + +It was even so. Paddy had heard a dry stick snap. It was a very tiny +snap, but it was enough to warn Paddy. With only his head above water he +had watched in the direction from which that sound had come. Presently, +stealing quietly along towards the pond, a hunter had come in view. +Instantly, Paddy had brought his broad tail down on the water with all +his force. He knew that Lightfoot would know that that meant danger. +Then Paddy had dived, and swimming under water, had sought the safety +of his house. He had done his part, and there was nothing more he could +do. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE THREE WATCHERS + + +When Paddy the Beaver slapped the water with his broad tail, making a +noise like a pistol shot, Lightfoot understood that this was meant as a +warning of danger. He was on his feet instantly, with eyes, ears, and +nose seeking the cause of Paddy's warning. After a moment or two he +stole softly up to the top of a little ridge some distance back from +Paddy's pond, but from the top of which he could see the whole of the +pond. There he hid among some close-growing young hemlock-trees. It +wasn't long before he saw a hunter with a terrible gun come down to the +shore of the pond. + +Now the hunter had heard Paddy slap the water with his broad tail. Of +course. There would have been something very wrong with his ears had he +failed to hear it. + +"Confound that Beaver!" muttered the hunter crossly. "If there was a +Deer anywhere around this pond, he probably is on his way now. I'll have +a look around and see if there are any signs." + +So the hunter went on to the edge of Paddy's pond and then began to walk +around it, studying the ground as he walked. Presently he found the +footprints of Lightfoot in the mud where Light foot had gone down to +the pond to drink. + +"I thought as much," muttered the hunter. "Those tracks were made last +night. That Deer probably was lying down somewhere near here, and I +might have had a shot but for that pesky Beaver. I'll just look the land +over, and then I think I'll wait here awhile. If that Deer isn't too +badly scared, he may come back." + +So the hunter went quite around the pond, looking into all likely +hiding-places. He found where Lightfoot had been lying, and he knew that +in all probability Lightfoot had been there when Paddy gave the danger +signal. + +"It's of no use for me to try to follow him," thought the hunter. "It is +too dry for me to track him. He may not be so badly scared, after all. +I'll just find a good place and wait." + +So the hunter found an old log behind some small trees and there sat +down. He could see all around Paddy's pond. He sat perfectly still. He +was a clever hunter and he knew that so long as he did not move he was +not likely to be noticed by any sharp eyes that might come that way. +What he didn't know was that Lightfoot had been watching him all the +time and was even then standing where he could see him. And another +thing he didn't know was that Paddy the Beaver had come out of his +house and, swimming under water, had reached a hiding-place on the +opposite shore from which he too had seen the hunter sit down on the +log. + +So the hunter watched for Lightfoot, and Lightfoot and Paddy watched the +hunter. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +VISITORS TO PADDY'S POND + + +That hunter was a man of patience. Also he was a man who understood the +little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows. He knew that if +he would not be seen he must not move. So he didn't move. He kept as +motionless as if he were a part of the very log on which he was sitting. + +For some time there was no sign of any living thing. Then, from over the +tree tops in the direction of the Big River, came the whistle of swift +wings, and Mr. and Mrs. Quack alighted with a splash in the pond. For a +few moments they sat on the water, a picture of watchful suspicion. They +were looking and listening to make sure that no danger was near. +Satisfied at last, they began to clean their feathers. It was plain that +they felt safe. Paddy the Beaver was tempted to warn them that they were +not as safe as they thought, but as long as the hunter did not move +Paddy decided to wait. + +Now the hunter was sorely tempted to shoot these Ducks, but he knew that +if he did he would have no chance that day to get Lightfoot the Deer, +and it was Lightfoot he wanted. So Mr. and Mrs. Quack swam about within +easy range of that terrible gun without once suspecting that danger was +anywhere near. + +By and by the hunter's keen eyes caught a movement at one end of Paddy's +dam. An instant later Bobby Coon appeared. It was clear that Bobby was +quite unsuspicious. He carried something, but just what the hunter could +not make out. He took it down to the edge of the water and there +carefully washed it. Then he climbed up on Paddy's dam and began to eat. +You know Bobby Coon is very particular about his food. Whenever there is +water near, Bobby washes his food before eating. Once more the hunter +was tempted, but did not yield to the temptation, which was a very good +thing for Bobby Coon. + +All this Lightfoot saw as he stood among the little hemlock-trees at the +top of the ridge behind the hunter. He saw and he understood. "It is +because he wants to kill me that he doesn't shoot at Mr. and Mrs. Quack +or Bobby Coon," thought Lightfoot a little bitterly. "What have I ever +done that he should be so anxious to kill me?" + +Still the hunter sat without moving. Mr. and Mrs. Quack contentedly +hunted for food in the mud at the bottom of Paddy's pond. Bobby Coon +finished his meal, crossed the dam and disappeared in the Green Forest. +He had gone off to take a nap somewhere. Time slipped away. The hunter +continued to watch patiently for Lightfoot, and Lightfoot and Paddy the +Beaver watched the hunter. Finally, another visitor appeared at the +upper end of the pond--a visitor in a wonderful coat of red. It was +Reddy Fox. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SAMMY JAY ARRIVES + + +When Reddy Fox arrived at the pond of Paddy the Beaver, the hunter who +was hiding there saw him instantly. So did Lightfoot. But no one else +did. He approached in that cautious, careful way that he always uses +when he is hunting. The instant he reached a place where he could see +all over Paddy's pond, he stopped as suddenly as if he had been turned +to stone. He stopped with one foot lifted in the act of taking a step. +He had seen Mr. and Mrs. Quack. + +Now you know there is nothing Reddy Fox likes better for a dinner than a +Duck. The instant he saw Mr. and Mrs. Quack, a gleam of longing crept +into his eyes and his mouth began to water. He stood motionless until +both Mr. and Mrs. Quack had their heads under water as they searched for +food in the mud in the bottom of the pond. Then like a red flash he +bounded out of sight behind the dam of Paddy the Beaver. + +Presently the hunter saw Reddy's black nose at the end of the dam as +Reddy peeped around it to watch Mr. and Mrs. Quack. The latter were +slowly moving along in that direction as they fed. Reddy was quick to +see this. If he remained right where he was, and Mr. and Mrs. Quack +kept on feeding in that direction, the chances were that he would have a +dinner of fat Duck. All he need do was to be patient and wait. So, with +his eyes fixed fast on Mr. and Mrs. Quack, Reddy Fox crouched behind +Paddy's dam and waited. + +Watching Reddy and the Ducks, the hunter almost forgot Lightfoot the +Deer. Mr. and Mrs. Quack were getting very near to where Reddy was +waiting for them. The hunter was tempted to get up and frighten those +Ducks. He didn't want Reddy Fox to have them, because he hoped some day +to get them himself. + +"I suppose," thought he, "I was foolish not to shoot them when I had +the chance. They are too far away now, and it looks very much as if that +red rascal will get one of them. I believe I'll spoil that red scamp's +plans by frightening them away. I don't believe that Deer will be back +here to-day anyway, so I may as well save those Ducks." + +But the hunter did nothing of the kind. You see, just as he was getting +ready to step out from his hiding-place, Sammy Jay arrived. He perched +in a tree close to the end of Paddy's dam and at once he spied Reddy +Fox. It didn't take him a second to discover what Reddy was hiding there +for. "Thief, thief, thief!" screamed Sammy, and then looked down at +Reddy with a mischievous look in his sharp eyes. There is nothing Sammy +Jay delights in more than in upsetting the plans of Reddy Fox. At the +sound of Sammy's voice, Mr. and Mrs. Quack swam hurriedly towards the +middle of the pond. They knew exactly what that warning meant. Reddy Fox +looked up at Sammy Jay and snarled angrily. Then, knowing it was useless +to hide longer, he bounded away through the Green Forest to hunt +elsewhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE HUNTER LOSES HIS TEMPER + + +The hunter, hidden near the pond of Paddy the Beaver, chuckled silently. +That is to say, he laughed without making any sound. The hunter thought +the warning of Mr. and Mrs. Quack by Sammy Jay was a great joke on +Reddy. To tell the truth, he was very much pleased. As you know, he +wanted those Ducks himself. He suspected that they would stay in that +little pond for some days, and he planned to return there and shoot them +after he had got Lightfoot the Deer. He wanted to get Lightfoot first, +and he knew that to shoot at anything else might spoil his chance of +getting a shot at Lightfoot. + +"Sammy Jay did me a good turn," thought the hunter, "although he doesn't +know it. Reddy Fox certainly would have caught one of those Ducks had +Sammy not come along just when he did. It would have been a shame to +have had one of them caught by that Fox. I mean to get one, and I hope +both of them, myself." + +Now when you come to think of it, it would have been a far greater shame +for the hunter to have killed Mr. and Mrs. Quack than for Reddy Fox to +have done so. Reddy was hunting them because he was hungry. The hunter +would have shot them for sport. He didn't need them. He had plenty of +other food. Reddy Fox doesn't kill just for the pleasure of killing. + +So the hunter continued to sit in his hiding-place with very friendly +feelings for Sammy Jay. Sammy watched Reddy Fox disappear and then flew +over to that side of the pond where the hunter was. Mr. and Mrs. Quack +called their thanks to Sammy, to which he replied, that he had done no +more for them than he would do for anybody, or than they would have done +for him. + +For some time Sammy sat quietly in the top of the tree, but all the time +his sharp eyes were very busy. By and by he spied the hunter sitting on +the log. At first he couldn't make out just what it was he was looking +at. It didn't move, but nevertheless Sammy was suspicious. Presently he +flew over to a tree where he could see better. Right away he spied the +terrible gun, and he knew just what that was. Once more he began to +yell, "Thief! thief! thief!" at the top of his lungs. It was then that +the hunter lost his temper. He knew that now he had been discovered by +Sammy Jay, and it was useless to remain there longer. He was angry clear +through. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +SAMMY JAY IS MODEST + + +As soon as the angry hunter with the terrible gun had disappeared among +the trees of the Green Forest, and Lightfoot was sure that he had gone +for good, Lightfoot came out from his hiding-place on top of the ridge +and walked down to the pond of Paddy the Beaver for a drink. He knew +that it was quite safe to do so, for Sammy Jay had followed the hunter, +all the time screaming, "Thief! thief! thief!" Every one within hearing +could tell just where that hunter was by Sammy's voice. It kept growing +fainter and fainter, and by that Lightfoot knew that the hunter was +getting farther and farther away. + +Paddy the Beaver swam out from his hiding-place and climbed out on the +bank near Lightfoot. There was a twinkle in his eyes. "That blue-coated +mischief-maker isn't such a bad fellow at heart, after all, is he?" said +he. + +Lightfoot lifted his beautiful head and set his ears forward to catch +the sound of Sammy's voice in the distance. + +"Sammy Jay may be a mischief-maker, as some people say," said he, "but +you can always count on him to prove a true friend in time of danger. He +brought me warning of the coming of the hunter the other morning. You +saw him save Mr. and Mrs. Quack a little while ago, and then he actually +drove that hunter away. I suppose Sammy Jay has saved more lives than +any one I know of. I wish he would come back here and let me thank him." + +Some time later Sammy Jay did come back. "Well," said he, as he smoothed +his feathers, "I chased that fellow clear to the edge of the Green +Forest, so I guess there will be nothing more to fear from him to-day. +I'm glad to see he hasn't got you yet, Lightfoot. I've been a bit +worried about you." + +"Sammy," said Lightfoot, "you are one of the best friends I have. I +don't know how I can ever thank you for what you have done for me." + +"Don't try," replied Sammy shortly. "I haven't done anything but what +anybody else would have done. Old Mother Nature gave me a pair of good +eyes and a strong voice. I simply make the best use of them I can. Just +to see a hunter with a terrible gun makes me angry clear through. I'd +rather spoil his hunting than eat." + +"You want to watch out, Sammy. One of these days a hunter will lose his +temper and shoot you, just to get even with you," warned Paddy the +Beaver. + +"Don't worry about me," replied Sammy "I know just how far those +terrible guns can shoot, and I don't take any chances. By the way, +Lightfoot, the Green Forest is full of hunters looking for you. I've +seen a lot of them, and I know they are looking for you because they do +not shoot at anybody else even when they have a chance." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +LIGHTFOOT HEARS A DREADFUL SOUND + + +Day after day, Lightfoot the Deer played hide and seek for his life with +the hunters who were seeking to kill him. He saw them many times, though +not one of them saw him. More than once a hunter passed close to +Lightfoot's hiding-place without once suspecting it. + +But poor Lightfoot was feeling the strain. He was growing thin, and he +was so nervous that the falling of a dead leaf from a tree would +startle him. There is nothing quite so terrible as being continually +hunted. It was getting so that Lightfoot half expected a hunter to step +out from behind every tree. Only when the Black Shadows wrapped the +Green Forest in darkness did he know a moment of peace. And those hours +of safety were filled with dread of what the next day might bring. + +Early one morning a terrible sound rang through the Green Forest and +brought Lightfoot to his feet with a startled jump. It was the baying of +hounds following a trail. At first it did not sound so terrible. +Lightfoot had often heard it before. Many times he had listened to the +baying of Bowser the Hound, as he followed Reddy Fox. It had not sounded +so terrible then because it meant no danger to Lightfoot. + +At first, as he listened early that morning, he took it for granted that +those hounds were after Reddy, and so, though startled, he was not +worried. But suddenly a dreadful suspicion came to him and he grew more +and more anxious as he listened. In a few minutes there was no longer +any doubt in his mind. Those hounds were following his trail. It was +then that the sound of that baying became terrible. He must run for his +life! Those hounds would give him no rest. And he knew that in running +from them, he would no longer be able to watch so closely for the +hunters with terrible guns. He would no longer be able to hide in +thickets. At any time he might be driven right past one of those +hunters. + +Lightfoot bounded away with such leaps as only Lightfoot can make. In a +little while the voices of the hounds grew fainter. Lightfoot stopped to +get his breath and stood trembling as he listened. The baying of the +hounds again grew louder and louder. Those wonderful noses of theirs +were following his trail without the least difficulty. In a panic of +fear, Lightfoot bounded away again. As he crossed an old road, the +Green Forest rang with the roar of a terrible gun. Something tore a +strip of bark from the trunk of a tree just above Lightfoot's back. It +was a bullet and it had just missed Lightfoot. It added to his terror +and this in turn added to his speed. + +So Lightfoot ran and ran, and behind him the voices of the hounds +continued to ring through the Green Forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HOW LIGHTFOOT GOT RID OF THE HOUNDS + + +Poor Lightfoot! It seemed to him that there were no such things as +justice and fair play. Had it been just one hunter at a time against +whom he had to match his wits it would not have been so bad. But there +were many hunters with terrible guns looking for him, and in dodging one +he was likely at any time to meet another. This in itself seemed +terribly unfair and unjust. But now, added to this was the greater +unfairness of being trailed by hounds. + +Do you wonder that Lightfoot thought of men as utterly heartless? You +see, he could not know that those hounds had not been put on his trail, +but had left home to hunt for their own pleasure. He could not know that +it was against the law to hunt him with dogs. But though none of those +hunters looking for him were guilty of having put the hounds on his +trail, each one of them was willing and eager to take advantage of the +fact that the hounds were on his trail. Already he had been shot at once +and he knew that he would be shot at again if he should be driven where +a hunter was hidden. + +The ground was damp and scent always lies best on damp ground. This +made it easy for the hounds to follow him with their wonderful noses. +Lightfoot tried every trick he could think of to make those hounds lose +the scent. + +"If only I could make them lose it long enough for me to get a little +rest, it would help," panted Lightfoot, as he paused for just an instant +to listen to the baying of the hounds. + +But he couldn't. They allowed him no rest. He was becoming very, very +tired. He could no longer bound lightly over fallen logs or brush, as he +had done at first. His lungs ached as he panted for breath. He realized +that even though he should escape the hunters he would meet an even more +terrible death unless he could get rid of those hounds. There would +come a time when he would have to stop. Then those hounds would catch up +with him and tear him to pieces. + +It was then that he remembered the Big River. He turned towards it. It +was his only chance and he knew it. Straight through the Green Forest, +out across the Green Meadows to the bank of the Big River, Lightfoot +ran. For just a second he paused to look behind. The hounds were almost +at his heels. Lightfoot hesitated no longer but plunged into the Big +River and began to swim. On the banks the hounds stopped and bayed their +disappointment, for they did not dare follow Lightfoot out into the Big +River. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +LIGHTFOOT'S LONG SWIM + + +The Big River was very wide. It would have been a long swim for +Lightfoot had he been fresh and at his best. Strange as it may seem, +Lightfoot is a splendid swimmer, despite his small, delicate feet. He +enjoys swimming. + +But now Lightfoot was terribly tired from his long run ahead of the +hounds. For a time he swam rapidly, but those weary muscles grew still +more weary, and by the time he reached the middle of the Big River it +seemed to him that he was not getting ahead at all. At first he had +tried to swim towards a clump of trees he could see on the opposite bank +above the point where he had entered the water, but to do this he had to +swim against the current and he soon found that he hadn't the strength +to do this. Then he turned and headed for a point down the Big River. +This made the swimming easier, for the current helped him instead of +hindering him. + +Even then he could feel his strength leaving him. Had he escaped those +hounds and the terrible hunters only to be drowned in the Big River? +This new fear gave him more strength for a little while. But it did not +last long. He was three fourths of the way across the Big River but +still that other shore seemed a long distance away. Little by little +hope died in the heart of Lightfoot the Deer. He would keep on just as +long as he could and then,--well, it was better to drown than to be torn +to pieces by dogs. + +Just as Lightfoot felt that he could not take another stroke and that +the end was at hand, one foot touched something. Then, all four feet +touched. A second later he had found solid footing and was standing with +the water only up to his knees. He had found a little sand bar out in +the Big River. With a little gasp of returning hope, Lightfoot waded +along until the water began to grow deeper again. He had hoped that he +would be able to wade ashore, but he saw now that he would have to swim +again. + +So for a long time he remained right where he was. He was so tired that +he trembled all over, and he was as frightened as he was tired. He knew +that standing out there in the water he could be seen for a long +distance, and that made him nervous and fearful. Supposing a hunter on +the shore he was trying to reach should see him. Then he would have no +chance at all, for the hunter would simply wait for him and shoot him as +he came out of the water. + +But rest he must, and so he stood for a long time on the little sand bar +in the Big River. And little by little he felt his strength returning. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +LIGHTFOOT FINDS A FRIEND + + +As Lightfoot rested, trying to recover his breath, out there on the +little sand bar in the Big River, his great, soft, beautiful eyes +watched first one bank and then the other. On the bank he had left, he +could see two black-and-white specks moving about, and across the water +came the barking of dogs. Those two specks were the hounds who had +driven him into the Big River. They were barking now, instead of baying. +Presently a brown form joined the black-and-white specks. It was a +hunter drawn there by the barking of the dogs. He was too far away to be +dangerous, but the mere sight of him filled Lightfoot with terror again. +He watched the hunter walk along the bank and disappear in the bushes. + +Presently out of the bushes came a boat, and in it was the hunter. He +headed straight towards Lightfoot, and then Lightfoot knew that his +brief rest was at an end. He must once more swim or be shot by the +hunter in the boat. So Lightfoot again struck out for the shore. His +rest had given him new strength, but still he was very, very tired and +swimming was hard work. + +Slowly, oh so slowly, he drew nearer to the bank. What new dangers +might be waiting there, he did not know. He had never been on that side +of the Big River. He knew nothing of the country on that side. But the +uncertainty was better than the certainty behind him. He could hear the +sound of the oars as the hunter in the boat did his best to get to him +before he should reach the shore. + +On Lightfoot struggled. At last he felt bottom beneath his feet. He +staggered up through some bushes along the bank and then for an instant +it seemed to him his heart stopped beating. Right in front of him stood +a man. He had come out into the back yard of the home of that man. It is +doubtful which was the more surprised, Lightfoot or the man. Right then +and there Lightfoot gave up in despair. He couldn't run. It was all he +could do to walk. The long chase by the hounds on the other side of the +Big River and the long swim across the Big River had taken all his +strength. + +Not a spark of hope remained to Lightfoot. He simply stood still and +trembled, partly with fear and partly with weariness. Then a surprising +thing happened. The man spoke softly. He advanced, not threateningly but +slowly, and in a friendly way. He walked around back of Lightfoot and +then straight towards him. Lightfoot walked on a few steps, and the man +followed, still talking softly. Little by little he urged Lightfoot on, +driving him towards an open shed in which was a pile of hay. Without +understanding just how, Lightfoot knew that he had found a friend. So he +entered the open shed and with a long sigh lay down in the soft hay. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE HUNTER IS DISAPPOINTED + + +How he knew he was safe, Lightfoot the Deer couldn't have told you. He +just knew it, that was all. He couldn't understand a word said by the +man in whose yard he found himself when he climbed the bank after his +long swim across the Big River. But he didn't have to understand words +to know that he had found a friend. So he allowed the man to drive him +gently over to an open shed where there was a pile of soft hay and there +he lay down, so tired that it seemed to him he couldn't move another +step. + +It was only a few minutes later that the hunter who had followed +Lightfoot across the River reached the bank and scrambled out of his +boat. Lightfoot's friend was waiting just at the top of the bank. Of +course the hunter saw him at once. + +"Hello, Friend!" cried the hunter. "Did you see a Deer pass this way a +few minutes ago? He swam across the river, and if I know anything about +it he's too tired to travel far now. I've been hunting that fellow for +several days, and if I have any luck at all I ought to get him this +time." + +"I'm afraid you won't have any luck at all," said Lightfoot's friend. +"You see, I don't allow any hunting on my land." + +The hunter looked surprised, and then his surprise gave way to anger. +"You mean," said he, "that you intend to get that Deer yourself." + +Lightfoot's friend shook his head. "No," said he, "I don't mean anything +of the kind. I mean that that Deer is not to be killed if I can prevent +it, and while it is on my land, I think I can. The best thing for you to +do, my friend, is to get into your boat and row back where you came +from. Are those your hounds barking over there?" + +"No," replied the hunter promptly. "I know the law just as well as you +do, and it is against the law to hunt Deer with dogs. I don't even know +who owns those two hounds over there." + +"That may be true," replied Lightfoot's friend. "I don't doubt it is +true. But you are willing to take advantage of the fact that the dogs of +some one else have broken the law. You knew that those dogs had driven +that Deer into the Big River and you promptly took advantage of the fact +to try to reach that Deer before he could get across. You are not +hunting for the pleasure of hunting but just to kill. You don't know the +meaning of justice or fairness. Now get off my land. Get back into your +boat and off my land as quick as you can. That Deer is not very far +from here and so tired that he cannot move. Just as long as he will stay +here, he will be safe, and I hope he will stay until this miserable +hunting season is ended. Now go." + +Muttering angrily, the hunter got back into his boat and pushed off, but +he didn't row back across the river. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE HUNTER LIES IN WAIT + + +If ever there was an angry hunter, it was the one who had followed +Lightfoot the Deer across the Big River. When he was ordered to get off +the land where Lightfoot had climbed out, he got back into his boat, but +he didn't row back to the other side. Instead, he rowed down the river, +finally landing on the same side but on land which Lightfoot's friend +did not own. + +"When that Deer has become rested he'll become uneasy," thought the +hunter. "He won't stay on that man's land. He'll start for the nearest +woods. I'll go up there and wait for him. I'll get that Deer if only to +spite that fellow back there who drove me off. Had it not been for him, +I'd have that Deer right now. He was too tired to have gone far. He's +got the handsomest pair of antlers I've seen for years. I can sell that +head of his for a good price." + +So the hunter tied his boat to a tree and once more climbed out. He +climbed up the bank and studied the land. Across a wide meadow he could +see a brushy old pasture and back of that some thick woods. He grinned. + +"That's where that Deer will head for," he decided. "There isn't any +other place for him to go. All I've got to do is be patient and wait." + +So the hunter took his terrible gun and tramped across the meadow to the +brush-grown pasture. There he hid among the bushes where he could peep +out and watch the land of Lightfoot's friend. He was still angry because +he had been prevented from shooting Lightfoot. At the same time he +chuckled, because he thought himself very smart. Lightfoot couldn't +possibly reach the shelter of the woods without giving him a shot, and +he hadn't the least doubt that Lightfoot would start for the woods just +as soon as he felt able to travel. So he made himself comfortable and +prepared to wait the rest of the day, if necessary. + +Now Lightfoot's friend who had driven the hunter off had seen him row +down the river and he had guessed just what was in that hunter's mind. +"We'll fool him," said he, chuckling to himself, as he walked back +towards the shed where poor Lightfoot was resting. + +He did not go too near Lightfoot, for he did not want to alarm him. He +just kept within sight of Lightfoot, paying no attention to him but +going about his work. You see, this man loved and understood the little +people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows, and he knew that there +was no surer way of winning Lightfoot's confidence and trust than by +appearing to take no notice of him. Lightfoot, watching him, understood. +He knew that this man was a friend and would do him no harm. Little by +little, the wonderful, blessed feeling of safety crept over Lightfoot. +No hunter could harm him here. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +LIGHTFOOT DOES THE WISE THING + + +All the rest of that day the hunter with the terrible gun lay hidden in +the bushes of the pasture where he could watch for Lightfoot the Deer to +leave the place of safety he had found. It required a lot of patience on +the part of the hunter, but the hunter had plenty of patience. It +sometimes seems as if hunters have more patience than any other people. + +But this hunter waited in vain. Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun sank down in +the west to his bed behind the Purple Hills. The Black Shadows crept +out and grew blacker. One by one the stars began to twinkle. Still the +hunter waited, and still there was no sign of Lightfoot. At last it +became so dark that it was useless for the hunter to remain longer. +Disappointed and once more becoming angry, he tramped back to the Big +River, climbed into his boat and rowed across to the other side. Then he +tramped home and his thoughts were very bitter. He knew that he could +have shot Lightfoot had it not been for the man who had protected the +Deer. He even began to suspect that this man had himself killed +Lightfoot, for he had been sure that as soon as he had become rested +Lightfoot would start for the woods, and Lightfoot had done nothing of +the kind. In fact, the hunter had not had so much as another glimpse of +Lightfoot. + +The reason that the hunter had been so disappointed was that Lightfoot +was smart. He was smart enough to understand that the man who was saving +him from the hunter had done it because he was a true friend. All the +afternoon Lightfoot had rested on a bed of soft hay in an open shed and +had watched this man going about his work and taking the utmost care to +do nothing to frighten Lightfoot. + +"He not only will let no one else harm me, but he himself will not harm +me," thought Lightfoot. "As long as he is near, I am safe. I'll stay +right around here until the hunting season is over, then I'll swim back +across the Big River to my home in the dear Green Forest." + +So all afternoon Lightfoot rested and did not so much as put his nose +outside that open shed. That is why the hunter got no glimpse of him. +When it became dark, so dark that he knew there was no longer danger, +Lightfoot got up and stepped out under the stars. He was feeling quite +himself again. His splendid strength had returned. He bounded lightly +across the meadow and up into the brushy pasture where the hunter had +been hidden. There and in the woods back of the pasture he browsed, but +at the first hint of the coming of another day, Lightfoot turned back, +and when his friend, the farmer, came out early in the morning to milk +the cows, there was Lightfoot back in the open shed. The farmer smiled. +"You are as wise as you are handsome, old fellow," said he. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +SAMMY JAY WORRIES + + +It isn't often Sammy Jay worries about anybody but himself. Truth to +tell, he doesn't worry about himself very often. You see, Sammy is +smart, and he knows he is smart. Under that pointed cap of his are some +of the cleverest wits in all the Green Forest. Sammy seldom worries +about himself because he feels quite able to take care of himself. + +But Sammy Jay was worrying now. He was worrying about Lightfoot the +Deer. Yes, Sir, Sammy Jay was worrying about Lightfoot the Deer. For +two days he had been unable to find Lightfoot or any trace of Lightfoot. +But he did find plenty of hunters with terrible guns. It seemed to him +that they were everywhere in the Green Forest. Sammy began to suspect +that one of them must have succeeded in killing Lightfoot the Deer. + +Sammy knew all of Lightfoot's hiding-places. He visited every one of +them. Lightfoot wasn't to be found, and no one whom Sammy met had seen +Lightfoot for two days. + +Sammy felt badly. You see, he was very fond of Lightfoot. You remember +it was Sammy who warned Lightfoot of the coming of the hunter on the +morning when the dreadful hunting season began. Ever since the hunting +season had opened, Sammy had done his best to make trouble for the +hunters. Whenever he had found one of them he had screamed at the top of +his voice to warn every one within hearing just where that hunter was. +Once a hunter had lost his temper and shot at Sammy, but Sammy had +suspected that something of the kind might happen, and he had taken care +to keep just out of reach. + +Sammy had known all about the chasing of Lightfoot by the hounds. +Everybody in the Green Forest had known about it. You see, everybody had +heard the voices of those hounds. Once, Lightfoot had passed right +under the tree in which Sammy was sitting, and a few moments later the +two hounds had passed with their noses to the ground as they followed +Lightfoot's trail. That was the last Sammy had seen of Lightfoot. He had +been able to save Lightfoot from the hunters, but he couldn't save him +from the hounds. + +The more Sammy thought things over, the more he worried. "I am afraid +those hounds drove him out where a hunter could get a shot and kill him, +or else that they tired him out and killed him themselves," thought +Sammy. "If he were alive, somebody certainly would have seen him and +nobody has, since the day those hounds chased him. I declare, I have +quite lost my appetite worrying about him. If Lightfoot is dead, and I +am almost sure he is, the Green Forest will never seem the same." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE HUNTING SEASON ENDS + + +The very worst things come to an end at last. No matter how bad a thing +is, it cannot last forever. So it was with the hunting season for +Lightfoot the Deer. There came a day when the law protected all Deer,--a +day when the hunters could no longer go searching for Lightfoot. + +Usually there was great rejoicing among the little people of the Green +Forest and the Green Meadows when the hunting season ended and they knew +that Lightfoot would be in no more danger until the next hunting +season. But this year there was no rejoicing. You see, no one could find +Lightfoot. The last seen of him was when he was running for his life +with two hounds baying on his trail and the Green Forest filled with +hunters watching for a chance to shoot him. + +Sammy Jay had hunted everywhere through the Green Forest. Blacky the +Crow, whose eyes are quite as sharp as those of Sammy Jay, had joined in +the search. They had found no trace of Lightfoot. Paddy the Beaver said +that for three days Lightfoot had not visited his pond for a drink. +Billy Mink, who travels up and down the Laughing Brook, had looked +for Lightfoot's footprints in the soft earth along the banks and had +found only old ones. Jumper the Hare had visited Lightfoot's favorite +eating places at night, but Lightfoot had not been in any of them. + +[Illustration: "I tell you what it is," said Sammy Jay to Bobby Coon, +"something has happened to Lightfoot."] + +"I tell you what it is," said Sammy Jay to Bobby Coon, "something has +happened to Lightfoot. Either those hounds caught him and killed him, or +he was shot by one of those hunters. The Green Forest will never be the +same without him. I don't think I shall want to come over here very +much. There isn't one of all the other people who live in the Green +Forest who would be missed as Lightfoot will be." + +Bobby Coon nodded. "That's true, Sammy," said he. "Without Lightfoot, +the Green Forest will never be the same. He never harmed anybody. Why +those hunters should have been so anxious to kill one so beautiful is +something I can't understand. For that matter, I don't understand why +they want to kill any of us. If they really needed us for food, it would +be a different matter, but they don't. Have you been up in the Old +Pasture and asked Old Man Coyote if he has seen anything of Lightfoot?" + +Sammy nodded. "I've been up there twice," said he. "Old Man Coyote has +been lying very low during the days, but nights he has done a lot of +traveling. You know Old Man Coyote has a mighty good nose, but not once +since the day those hounds chased Lightfoot has he found so much as a +tiny whiff of Lightfoot's scent. I thought he might have found the place +where Lightfoot was killed, but he hasn't, although he has looked for +it. Well, the hunting season for Lightfoot is over, but I am afraid it +has ended too late." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +Mr. AND MRS. QUACK ARE STARTLED + + +It was the evening of the day after the closing of the hunting season +for Lightfoot the Deer. Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind +the Purple Hills, and the Black Shadows had crept out across the Big +River. Mr. and Mrs. Quack were getting their evening meal among the +brown stalks of the wild rice along the edge of the Big River. They took +turns in searching for the rice grains in the mud. While Mrs. Quack +tipped up and seemed to stand on her head as she searched in the mud +for rice, Mr. Quack kept watch for possible danger. Then Mrs. Quack took +her turn at keeping watch, while Mr. Quack stood on his head and hunted +for rice. + +It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful. There was not even a ripple on +the Big River. It was so quiet that they could hear the barking of a dog +at a farmhouse a mile away. They were far enough out from the bank to +have nothing to fear from Reddy Fox or Old Man Coyote. So they had +nothing to fear from any one save Hooty the Owl. It was for Hooty that +they took turns in watching. It was just the hour when Hooty likes best +to hunt. + +By and by they heard Hooty's hunting call. It was far away in the Green +Forest. Then Mr. and Mrs. Quack felt easier, and they talked in low, +contented voices. They felt that for a while at least there was nothing +to fear. + +Suddenly a little splash out in the Big River caught Mr. Quack's quick +ear. As Mrs. Quack brought her head up out of the water, Mr. Quack +warned her to keep quiet. Noiselessly they swam among the brown stalks +until they could see out across the Big River. There was another little +splash out there in the middle. It wasn't the splash made by a fish; it +was a splash made by something much bigger than any fish. Presently +they made out a silver line moving towards them from the Black Shadows. +They knew exactly what it meant. It meant that some one was out there in +the Big River moving towards them. Could it be a boat containing a +hunter? + +With their necks stretched high, Mr. and Mrs. Quack watched. They were +ready to take to their strong wings the instant they discovered danger. +But they did not want to fly until they were sure that it _was_ danger +approaching. They were startled, very much startled. + +Presently they made out what looked like the branch of a tree moving +over the water towards them. That was queer, very queer. Mr. Quack said +so. Mrs. Quack said so. Both were growing more and more suspicious. They +couldn't understand it at all, and it is always best to be suspicious of +things you cannot understand. Mr. and Mrs. Quack half lifted their wings +to fly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED + + +It was very mysterious. Yes, Sir, it was very mysterious. Mr. Quack +thought so. Mrs. Quack thought so. There, out in the Big River, in the +midst of the Black Shadows, was something which looked like the branch +of a tree. But instead of moving down the river, as the branch of a tree +would if it were floating, this was coming straight across the river as +if it were swimming. But how could the branch of a tree swim? That was +too much for Mr. Quack. It was too much for Mrs. Quack. + +So they sat perfectly still among the brown stalks of the wild rice +along the edge of the Big River, and not for a second did they take +their eyes from that strange thing moving towards them. They were ready +to spring into the air and trust to their swift wings the instant they +should detect danger. But they did not want to fly unless they had to. +Besides, they were curious. They were very curious indeed. They wanted +to find out what that mysterious thing moving through the water towards +them was. + +So Mr. and Mrs. Quack watched that thing that looked like a swimming +branch draw nearer and nearer, and the nearer it drew the more they +were puzzled, and the more curious they felt. If it had been the pond of +Paddy the Beaver instead of the Big River, they would have thought it +was Paddy swimming with a branch for his winter food pile. But Paddy the +Beaver was way back in his own pond, deep in the Green Forest, and they +knew it. So this thing became more and more of a mystery. The nearer it +came, the more nervous and anxious they grew, and at the same time the +greater became their curiosity. + +At last Mr. Quack felt that not even to gratify his curiosity would it +be safe to wait longer. He prepared to spring into the air, knowing that +Mrs. Quack would follow him. It was just then that a funny little sound +reached him. It was half snort, half cough, as if some one had sniffed +some water up his nose. There was something familiar about that sound. +Mr. Quack decided to wait a few minutes longer. + +"I'll wait," thought Mr. Quack, "until that thing, whatever it is, comes +out of those Black Shadows into the moonlight. Somehow I have a feeling +that we are in no danger." + +So Mr. and Mrs. Quack waited and watched. In a few minutes the thing +that looked like the branch of a tree came out of the Black Shadows into +the moonlight, and then the mystery was solved. It was a mystery no +longer. They saw that they had mistaken the antlers of Lightfoot the +Deer for the branch of a tree. Lightfoot was swimming across the Big +River on his way back to his home in the Green Forest. At once Mr. and +Mrs. Quack swam out to meet him and to tell him how glad they were that +he was alive and safe. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +A SURPRISING DISCOVERY + + +Probably there was no happier Thanksgiving in all the Great World than +the Thanksgiving of Lightfoot the Deer, when the dreadful hunting season +ended and he was once more back in his beloved Green Forest with nothing +to fear. All his neighbors called on him to tell him how glad they were +that he had escaped and how the Green Forest would not have been the +same if he had not returned. So Lightfoot roamed about without fear and +was happy. It seemed to him that he could not be happier. There was +plenty to eat and that blessed feeling of nothing to fear. What more +could any one ask? He began to grow sleek and fat and handsomer than +ever. The days were growing colder and the frosty air made him feel +good. + +Just at dusk one evening he went down to his favorite drinking place at +the Laughing Brook. As he put down his head to drink he saw something +which so surprised him that he quite forgot he was thirsty. What do you +think it was he saw? It was a footprint in the soft mud. Yes, Sir, it +was a footprint. + +For a long time Lightfoot stood staring at that footprint. In his +great, soft eyes was a look of wonder and surprise. You see, that +footprint was exactly like one of his own, only smaller. To Lightfoot it +was a very wonderful footprint. He was quite sure that never had he seen +such a dainty footprint. He forgot to drink. Instead, he began to search +for other footprints, and presently he found them. Each was as dainty as +that first one. + +Who could have made them? That is what Lightfoot wanted to know and what +he meant to find out. It was clear to him that there was a stranger in +the Green Forest, and somehow he didn't resent it in the least. In +fact, he was glad. He couldn't have told why, but it was true. + +Lightfoot put his nose to the footprints and sniffed of them. Even had +he not known by looking at those prints that they had been made by a +stranger, his nose would have told him this. A great longing to find the +maker of those footprints took possession of him. He lifted his handsome +head and listened for some slight sound which might show that the +stranger was near. With his delicate nostrils he tested the wandering +little Night Breezes for a stray whiff of scent to tell him which way to +go. But there was no sound and the wandering little Night Breezes told +him nothing. Lightfoot followed the dainty footprints up the bank. +There they disappeared, for the ground was hard. Lightfoot paused, +undecided which way to go. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +LIGHTFOOT SEES THE STRANGER + + +Lightfoot the Deer was unhappy. It was a strange unhappiness, an +unhappiness such as he had never known before. You see, he had +discovered that there was a stranger in the Green Forest, a stranger of +his own kind, another Deer. He knew it by dainty footprints in the mud +along the Laughing Brook and on the edge of the pond of Paddy the +Beaver. He knew it by other signs which he ran across every now and +then. But search as he would, he was unable to find that newcomer. He +had searched everywhere but always he was just too late. The stranger +had been and gone. + +Now there was no anger in Lightfoot's desire to find that stranger. +Instead, there was a great longing. For the first time in his life +Lightfoot felt lonely. So he hunted and hunted and was unhappy. He lost +his appetite. He slept little. He roamed about uneasily, looking, +listening, testing every Merry Little Breeze, but all in vain. + +Then, one never-to-be-forgotten night, as he drank at the Laughing +Brook, a strange feeling swept over him. It was the feeling of being +watched. Lightfoot lifted his beautiful head and a slight movement +caught his quick eye and drew it to a thicket not far away. The silvery +light of gentle Mistress Moon fell full on that thicket, and thrust out +from it was the most beautiful head in all the Great World. At least, +that is the way it seemed to Lightfoot, though to tell the truth it was +not as beautiful as his own, for it was uncrowned by antlers. For a long +minute Lightfoot stood gazing. A pair of wonderful, great, soft eyes +gazed back at him. Then that beautiful head disappeared. + +With a mighty bound, Lightfoot cleared the Laughing Brook and rushed +over to the thicket in which that beautiful head had disappeared. He +plunged in, but there was no one there. Frantically he searched, but +that thicket was empty. Then he stood still and listened. Not a sound +reached him. It was as still as if there were no other living things in +all the Green Forest. The beautiful stranger had slipped away as +silently as a shadow. + +All the rest of that night Lightfoot searched through the Green Forest +but his search was in vain. The longing to find that beautiful stranger +had become so great that he fairly ached with it. It seemed to him that +until he found her he could know no happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +A DIFFERENT GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK + + +Once more Lightfoot the Deer was playing hide and seek in the Green +Forest. But it was a very different game from the one he had played just +a short time before. You remember that then it had been for his life +that he had played, and he was the one who had done all the hiding. Now, +he was "it", and some one else was doing the hiding. Instead of the +dreadful fear which had filled him in that other game, he was now filled +with longing,--longing to find and make friends with the beautiful +stranger of whom he had just once caught a glimpse, but of whom every +day he found tracks. + +At times Lightfoot would lose his temper. Yes, Sir, Lightfoot would lose +his temper. That was a foolish thing to do, but it seemed to him that he +just couldn't help it. He would stamp his feet angrily and thrash the +bushes with his great spreading antlers as if they were an enemy with +whom he was fighting. More than once when he did this a pair of great, +soft, gentle eyes were watching him, though he didn't know it. If he +could have seen them and the look of admiration in them, he would have +been more eager than ever to find that beautiful stranger. + +At other times Lightfoot would steal about through the Green Forest as +noiselessly as a shadow. He would peer into thickets and behind tangles +of fallen trees and brush piles, hoping to surprise the one he sought. +He would be very, very patient. Perhaps he would come to the thicket +which he knew from the signs the stranger had left only a few moments +before. Then his patience would vanish in impatience, and he would dash +ahead, eager to catch up with the shy stranger. But always it was in +vain. He had thought himself very clever but this stranger was proving +herself more clever. + +Of course it wasn't long before all the little people in the Green +Forest knew what was going on. They knew all about that game of hide and +seek just as they had known all about that other game of hide and seek +with the hunters. But now, instead of trying to help Lightfoot as they +did then, they gave him no help at all. The fact is, they were enjoying +that game. Mischievous Sammy Jay even went so far as to warn the +stranger several times when Lightfoot was approaching. Of course +Lightfoot knew when Sammy did this, and each time he lost his temper. +For the time being, he quite forgot all that Sammy had done for him when +he was the one that was being hunted. + +Once Lightfoot almost ran smack into Buster Bear and was so provoked by +his own carelessness that instead of bounding away he actually +threatened to fight Buster. But when Buster grinned good-naturedly at +him, Lightfoot thought better of it and bounded away to continue his +search. + +Then there were times when Lightfoot would sulk and would declare over +and over to himself, "I don't care anything about that stranger. I won't +spend another minute looking for her," And then within five minutes he +would be watching, listening and seeking some sign that she was still in +the Green Forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +A STARTLING NEW FOOTPRINT + + +The game of hide and seek between Lightfoot the Deer and the beautiful +stranger whose dainty footprints had first started Lightfoot to seeking +her had been going on for several days and nights when Lightfoot found +something which gave him a shock. He had stolen very softly down to the +Laughing Brook, hoping to surprise the beautiful stranger drinking +there. She wasn't to be seen. Lightfoot wondered if she had been there, +so looked in the mud at the edge of the Laughing Brook to see if there +were any fresh prints of those dainty feet. Almost at once he discovered +fresh footprints. They were not the prints he was looking for. No, Sir, +they were not the dainty prints he had learned to know so well. They +were prints very near the size of his own big ones, and they had been +made only a short time before. + +The finding of those prints was a dreadful shock to Lightfoot. He +understood instantly what they meant. They meant that a second stranger +had come into the Green Forest, one who had antlers like his own. +Jealousy took possession of Lightfoot the Deer; jealousy that filled +his heart with rage. + +"He has come here to seek that beautiful stranger I have been hunting +for," thought Lightfoot. "He has come here to try to steal her away from +me. He has no right here in my Green Forest. He belongs back up on the +Great Mountain from which he must have come, for there is no other place +he could have come from. That is where that beautiful stranger must have +come from, too. I want her to stay, but I must drive this fellow out. +I'll make him fight. That's what I'll do; I'll make him fight! I'm not +afraid of him, but I'll make him fear me." + +Lightfoot stamped his feet and with his great antlers thrashed the +bushes as if he felt that they were the enemy he sought. Could you have +looked into his great eyes then, you would have found nothing soft and +beautiful about them. They became almost red with anger. Lightfoot +quivered all over with rage. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. +Lightfoot the Deer looked anything but gentle. + +After he had vented his spite for a few minutes on the harmless, +helpless bushes, he threw his head high in the air and whistled angrily. +Then he leaped over the Laughing Brook and once more began to search +through the Green Forest. But this time it was not for the beautiful +stranger with the dainty feet. He had no time to think of her now. He +must first find this newcomer and he meant to waste no time in doing +it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +LIGHTFOOT IS RECKLESS + + +In his search for the new stranger who had come to the Green Forest, +Lightfoot the Deer was wholly reckless. He no longer stole like a gray +shadow from thicket to thicket as he had done when searching for the +beautiful stranger with the dainty feet. He bounded along, careless of +how much noise he made. From time to time he would stop to whistle a +challenge and to clash his horns against the trees and stamp the ground +with his feet. + +After such exhibitions of anger he would pause to listen, hoping to +hear some sound which would tell him where the stranger was. Now and +then he found the stranger's tracks, and from them he knew that this +stranger was doing just what he had been doing, seeking to find the +beautiful newcomer with the dainty feet. Each time he found these signs +Lightfoot's rage increased. + +Of course it didn't take Sammy Jay long to discover what was going on. +There is little that escapes those sharp eyes of Sammy Jay. As you know, +he had early discovered the game of hide and seek Lightfoot had been +playing with the beautiful young visitor who had come down to the Green +Forest from the Great Mountain. Then, by chance, Sammy had visited the +Laughing Brook just as the big stranger had come down there to drink. +For once Sammy had kept his tongue still. "There is going to be +excitement here when Lightfoot discovers this fellow," thought Sammy. +"If they ever meet, and I have a feeling that they will, there is going +to be a fight worth seeing. I must pass the word around." + +So Sammy Jay hunted up his cousin, Blacky the Crow, and told him what he +had discovered. Then he hunted up Bobby Coon and told him. He saw Unc' +Billy Possum sitting in the doorway of his hollow tree and told him. He +discovered Jumper the Hare sitting under a little hemlock-tree and told +him. Then he flew over to the dear Old Briar-patch to tell Peter Rabbit. +Of course he told Drummer the Woodpecker, Tommy Tit the Chickadee, and +Yank Yank the Nuthatch, who were over in the Old Orchard, and they at +once hurried to the Green Forest, for they couldn't think of missing +anything so exciting as would be the meeting between Lightfoot and the +big stranger from the Great Mountain. + +Sammy didn't forget to tell Paddy the Beaver, but it was no news to +Paddy. Paddy had seen the big stranger on the edge of his pond early the +night before. + +Of course, Lightfoot knew nothing about all this. His one thought was +to find that big stranger and drive him from the Green Forest, and so he +continued his search tirelessly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +SAMMY JAY TAKES A HAND + + +Sammy Jay was bubbling over with excitement as he flew about through the +Green Forest, following Lightfoot the Deer. He was so excited he wanted +to scream. But he didn't. He kept his tongue still. You see, he didn't +want Lightfoot to know that he was being followed. Under that pointed +cap of Sammy Jay's are quick wits. It didn't take him long to discover +that the big stranger whom Lightfoot was seeking was doing his best to +keep out of Lightfoot's way and that he was having no difficulty in +doing so because of the reckless way in which Lightfoot was searching +for him. Lightfoot made so much noise that it was quite easy to know +just where he was and to keep out of his sight. + +"That stranger is nearly as big as Lightfoot, but it is very plain that +he doesn't want to fight," thought Sammy. "He must be a coward." + +Now the truth is, the stranger was not a coward. He was ready and +willing to fight if he had to, but if he could avoid fighting he meant +to. You see, big as he was, he wasn't quite so big as Lightfoot, and he +knew it. He had seen Lightfoot's big footprints, and from their size he +knew that Lightfoot must be bigger and heavier than he. Then, too, he +knew that he really had no right to be there in the Green Forest. That +was Lightfoot's home and so he was an intruder. He knew that Lightfoot +would feel this way about it and that this would make him fight all the +harder. So the big stranger wanted to avoid a fight if possible. But he +wanted still more to find that beautiful young visitor with the dainty +feet for whom Lightfoot had been looking. He wanted to find her just as +Lightfoot wanted to find her, and he hoped that if he did find her, he +could take her away with him back to the Great Mountain. If he had to, +he would fight for her, but until he had to he would keep out of the +fight. So he dodged Lightfoot and at the same time looked for the +beautiful stranger. + +All this Sammy Jay guessed, and after a while he grew tired of following +Lightfoot for nothing. "I'll have to take a hand in this thing myself," +muttered Sammy. "At this rate, Lightfoot never will find that big +stranger!" + +So Sammy stopped following Lightfoot and began to search through the +Green Forest for the big stranger. It didn't take very long to find him. +He was over near the pond of Paddy the Beaver. As soon as he saw him, +Sammy began to scream at the top of his lungs. At once he heard the +sound of snapping twigs at the top of a little ridge back of Paddy's +pond and knew that Lightfoot had heard and understood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +THE GREAT FIGHT + + +Down from the top of the ridge back of the pond of Paddy the Beaver +plunged Lightfoot the Deer, his eyes blazing with rage. He had +understood the screaming of Sammy Jay. He knew that somewhere down there +was the big stranger he had been looking for. + +The big stranger had understood Sammy's screaming quite as well as +Lightfoot. He knew that to run away now would be to prove himself a +coward and forever disgrace himself in the eyes of Miss Daintyfoot, for +that was the name of the beautiful stranger he had been seeking. He +_must_ fight. There was no way out of it, he _must_ fight. The hair on +the back of his neck stood up with anger just as did the hair on the +neck of Lightfoot. His eyes also blazed. He bounded out into a little +open place by the pond of Paddy the Beaver and there he waited. + +Meanwhile Sammy Jay was flying about in the greatest excitement, +screaming at the top of his lungs, "A fight! A fight! A fight!" Blacky +the Crow, over in another part of the Green Forest, heard him and took +up the cry and at once hurried over to Paddy's pond. Everybody who was +near enough hurried there. Bobby Coon and Unc' Billy Possum climbed +trees from which they could see and at the same time be safe. Billy Mink +hurried to a safe place on the dam of Paddy the Beaver. Paddy himself +climbed up on the roof of his house out in the pond. Peter Rabbit and +Jumper the Hare, who happened to be not far away, hurried over where +they could peep out from under some young hemlock-trees. Buster Bear +shuffled down the hill and watched from the other side of the pond. +Reddy and Granny Fox were both there. + +For what seemed like the longest time, but which was for only a minute, +Lightfoot and the big stranger stood still, glaring at each other. +Then, snorting with rage, they lowered their heads and plunged together. +Their antlers clashed with a noise that rang through the Green Forest, +and both fell to their knees. There they pushed and struggled. Then they +separated and backed away, to repeat the movement over again. It was a +terrible fight. Everybody said so. If they had not known before, +everybody knew now what those great antlers were for. Once the big +stranger managed to reach Lightfoot's right shoulder with one of the +sharp points of his antlers and made a long tear in Lightfoot's gray +coat. It only made Lightfoot fight harder. + +Sometimes they would rear up and strike with their sharp hoofs. Back +and forth they plunged, and the ground was torn up by their feet. Both +were getting out of breath, and from time to time they had to stop for a +moment's rest. Then they would come together again more fiercely than +ever. Never had such a fight been seen in the Green Forest. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +AN UNSEEN WATCHER + + +As Lightfoot the Deer and the big stranger from the Great Mountain +fought in the little opening near the pond of Paddy the Beaver, neither +knew or cared who saw them. Each was filled fully with rage and +determined to drive the other from the Green Forest. Each was fighting +for the right to win the love of Miss Daintyfoot. + +Neither of them knew that Miss Daintyfoot herself was watching them. But +she was. She had heard the clash of their great antlers as they had +come together the first time, and she had known exactly what it meant. +Timidly she had stolen forward to a thicket where, safely hidden, she +could watch that terrible fight. She knew that they were fighting for +her. Of course. She knew it just as she had known how both had been +hunting for her. What she didn't know for some time was which one she +wanted to win that fight. + +Both Lightfoot and the big stranger were handsome. Yes, indeed, they +were very handsome. Lightfoot was just a little bit the bigger and it +seemed to her just a little bit the handsomer. She almost wanted him to +win. Then, when she saw how bravely the big stranger was fighting and +how well he was holding his own, even though he was a little smaller +than Lightfoot, she almost hoped he would win. + +That great fight lasted a long time. To pretty Miss Daintyfoot it seemed +that it never would end. But after a while Lightfoot's greater size and +strength began to tell. Little by little the big stranger was forced +back towards the edge of the open place. Now he would be thrown to his +knees when Lightfoot wasn't. As Lightfoot saw this, he seemed to gain +new strength. At last he caught the stranger in such a way that he threw +him over. While the stranger struggled to get to his feet again, +Lightfoot's sharp antlers made long tears in his gray coat. The stranger +was beaten and he knew it. The instant he succeeded in getting to his +feet he turned tail and plunged for the shelter of the Green Forest. +With a snort of triumph, Lightfoot plunged after him. + +But now that he was beaten, fear took possession of the stranger. All +desire to fight left him. His one thought was to get away, and fear gave +him speed. Straight back towards the Great Mountain from which he had +come the stranger headed. Lightfoot followed only a short distance. He +knew that that stranger was going for good and would not come back. +Then Lightfoot turned back to the open place where they had fought. +There he threw up his beautiful head, crowned by its great antlers, and +whistled a challenge to all the Green Forest. As she looked at him, Miss +Daintyfoot knew that she had wanted him to win. She knew that there +simply couldn't be anybody else so handsome and strong and brave in all +the Great World. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +LIGHTFOOT DISCOVERS LOVE + + +Wonderfully handsome was Lightfoot the Deer as he stood in the little +opening by the pond of Paddy the Beaver, his head thrown back proudly, +as he received the congratulations of his neighbors of the Green Forest +who had seen him win the great fight with the big stranger who had come +down from the Great Mountain. To beautiful Miss Daintyfoot, peeping out +from the thicket where she had hidden to watch the great fight, +Lightfoot was the most wonderful person in all the Great World. She +adored him, which means that she loved him just as much as it was +possible for her to love. + +But Lightfoot didn't know this. In fact, he didn't know that Miss +Daintyfoot was there. His one thought had been to drive out of the Green +Forest the big stranger who had come down from the Great Mountain. He +had been jealous of that big stranger, though he hadn't known that he +was jealous. The real cause of his anger and desire to fight had been +the fear that the big stranger would find Miss Daintyfoot and take her +away. Of course this was nothing but jealousy. + +Now that the great fight was over, and he knew that the big stranger +was hurrying back to the Great Mountain, all Lightfoot's anger melted +away. In its place was a great longing to find Miss Daintyfoot. His +great eyes became once more soft and beautiful. In them was a look of +wistfulness. Lightfoot walked down to the edge of the water and drank, +for he was very, very thirsty. Then he turned, intending to take up once +more his search for beautiful Miss Daintyfoot. + +When he turned he faced the thicket in which Miss Daintyfoot was hiding. +His keen eyes caught a little movement of the branches. A beautiful head +was slowly thrust out, and Lightfoot gazed again into a pair of soft +eyes which he was sure were the most beautiful eyes in all the Great +World. He wondered if she would disappear and run away as she had the +last time he saw her. + +He took a step or two forward. The beautiful head was withdrawn. +Lightfoot's heart sank. Then he bounded forward into that thicket. He +more than half expected to find no one there, but when he entered that +thicket he received the most wonderful surprise in all his life. There +stood Miss Daintyfoot, timid, bashful, but with a look in her eyes which +Lightfoot could not mistake. In that instant Lightfoot understood the +meaning of that longing which had kept him hunting for her and of the +rage which had filled him when he had discovered the presence of the big +stranger from the Great Mountain. It was love. Lightfoot knew that he +loved Miss Daintyfoot and, looking into her soft, gentle eyes, he knew +that Miss Daintyfoot loved him. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +HAPPY DAYS IN THE GREEN FOREST + + +These were happy days in the Green Forest. At least, they were happy for +Lightfoot the Deer. They were the happiest days he had ever known. You +see, he had won beautiful, slender, young Miss Daintyfoot, and now she +was no longer Miss Daintyfoot but Mrs. Lightfoot. Lightfoot was sure +that there was no one anywhere so beautiful as she, and Mrs. Lightfoot +knew that there was no one so handsome and brave as he. + +Wherever Lightfoot went, Mrs. Lightfoot went. He showed her all his +favorite hiding-places. He led her to his favorite eating-places. She +did not tell him that she was already acquainted with every one of them, +that she knew the Green Forest quite as well as he did. If he had +stopped to think how day after day she had managed to keep out of his +sight while he hunted for her, he would have realized that there was +little he could show her which she did not already know. But he didn't +stop to think and proudly led her from place to place. And Mrs. +Lightfoot wisely expressed delight with all she saw quite as if it were +all new. + +Of course, all the little people of the Green Forest hurried to pay +their respects to Mrs. Lightfoot and to tell Lightfoot how glad they +felt for him. And they really did feel glad. You see, they all loved +Lightfoot and they knew that now he would be happier than ever, and that +there would be no danger of his leaving the Green Forest because of +loneliness. The Green Forest would not be the same at all without +Lightfoot the Deer. + +Lightfoot told Mrs. Lightfoot all about the terrible days of the hunting +season and how glad he was that she had not been in the Green Forest +then. He told her how the hunters with terrible guns had given him no +rest and how he had had to swim the Big River to get away from the +hounds. + +"I know," replied Mrs. Lightfoot softly. "I know all about it. You see, +there were hunters on the Great Mountain. In fact, that is how I +happened to come down to the Green Forest. They hunted me so up there +that I did not dare stay, and I came down here thinking that there might +be fewer hunters. I wouldn't have believed that I could ever be thankful +to hunters for anything, but I am, truly I am." + +There was a puzzled look on Lightfoot's face. "What for?" he demanded. +"I can't imagine anybody being thankful to hunters for anything." + +"Oh, you stupid," cried Mrs. Lightfoot. "Don't you see that if I hadn't +been driven down from the Great Mountain, I never would have found +_you_?" + +"You mean, I never would have found _you_," retorted Lightfoot. "I guess +I owe these hunters more than you do. I owe them the greatest happiness +I have ever known, but I never would have thought of it myself. Isn't it +queer how things which seem the very worst possible sometimes turn out +to be the very best possible?" + +Blacky the Crow is one of Lightfoot's friends, but sometimes even +friends are envious. It is so with Blacky. He insists that he is quite +as important in the Green Forest as is Lightfoot and that his doings are +quite as interesting. Therefore just to please him the next book is to +be Blacky the Crow. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer, by +Thornton W. 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