The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer | Page 8

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