Lightfoot the Deer | Page 6

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