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 Project Gutenberg's Lightfoot the Deer, by Thornton W. Burgess

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIGHTFOOT THE DEER ***

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