ul head was withdrawn.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 h