The Tale of Nimble Deer | Page 8

happened. "I'll never be able to take part in another mock battle again!" For the Spike Horns had had gay times pretending to fight one another in a most savage fashion.
After Nimble lost his horns he carefully avoided all his playmates. He didn't want the other Spike Horns to see him. At last, to his great dismay, one day he came face to face with one of them. They both tried to dodge out of sight. But the other, whose name was Dodger, was not quite quick enough. Before he hid behind a thicket Nimble saw that he had lost his horns too!
Then Nimble guessed the truth. He knew why it was that he had managed to keep out of sight of his friends. Every Spike Horn in the neighborhood had lost his horns! And every one of them had been trying to keep out of sight.

X
AT THE CARROT PATCH
During his first summer Nimble never reached Farmer Green's carrot patch once. His mother had planned to take him there. But on account of an unexpected party she had postponed their visit. And somehow the right night for a trip after carrots never seemed to come again.
Now, Nimble had never forgotten what his mother had told him about carrots. And he was going after some--so he promised himself--just as soon as he was big enough.
When Nimble's second summer rolled around he was big enough and old enough to prowl through the woods and fields much as he pleased. He was a Spike Horn. And he felt fit to go to the carrot patch without waiting for anybody to show him the way.
So one night he stole down the hillside pasture, across the meadow, and jumped the fence into Farmer Green's garden.
He saw at once that somebody was there ahead of him. It was Jimmy Rabbit. He was very busy with one of Farmer Green's cabbages.
"I've come down to try the carrots," said Nimble.
Jimmy Rabbit made no reply, except to nod his head slightly. He was eating so fast that he really couldn't speak just then.
"Are these carrots?" Nimble inquired, as he looked about at the big cabbages, which crossed the garden in long rows.
Jimmy Rabbit shook his head.
"They seem to be good," said Nimble, "whatever they are. I'll taste of one."
And he did. In fact he tasted of three or four of them, eating their centers out neatly.
Meanwhile Jimmy Rabbit was becoming uneasy. And at last he spoke.
"I thought," he said, "you told me you had come down here to try the carrots."
"So I did," Nimble answered. "But I don't know where the carrots are."
"Why didn't you say so before?" Jimmy Rabbit asked him. And without waiting for a reply he cried, "Follow me! I'll show you." And he hopped off briskly, with Nimble after him.
Soon Jimmy Rabbit came to a halt.
"Here it is!" he said. "Here's the carrot patch. Help yourself!" And then he hopped away again, back to his supper of cabbages.
[Illustration: Nimble Deer Followed Jimmy Rabbit. Page 57]
Nimble Deer began to eat the carrot tops. And he was greatly disappointed.
"They're not half as good as those great round balls," he muttered. And he turned away from the carrots, to go back and join Jimmy Rabbit. But he hadn't gone far when he met Jimmy bounding along in a great hurry.
"Old dog Spot!" Jimmy Rabbit gasped as he whisked past Nimble. "He's out to-night and he's coming this way."
In one leap Nimble sprang completely around and followed Jimmy Rabbit across the meadow, up through the pasture and over the stone wall into the woods. There they lost each other.
The next morning Nimble met his mother along the ridge that ran down toward Cedar Swamp.
"I went down to the carrot patch last night," he told her. "And I must say I don't see why you're so fond of carrots. They're not half as good as some big green balls that I found in the garden. I call the carrot leaves tough. But the big green balls have very tender leaves."
His mother gave him a queer look.
"Do you mean to tell me," she asked him, "that you ate only the leaves of the carrots?"
"Why, yes!" said Nimble. "I saw nothing else to eat. There was no fruit on them."
"Ho!" cried his mother. "You have to dig with your toes to reach the carrots themselves. They're down in the ground. And to my mind there's nothing any juicier and sweeter and tenderer than nice young carrots, eaten by the light of the moon."
Nimble felt very foolish. And then he tossed his head and said lightly, "Oh, well! It wouldn't have made any difference if I had dug the carrots out of the dirt. They wouldn't have tasted right anyhow. For there was no moon last night!"

XI
CUFFY AND THE CAVE
Nimble did not spend