ratch on either shapely body.

Finally, they backed off and rushed together again with such violence
that our Buck's antlers were forced apart just a trifle, and his enemy's
slipped in between them. There was a little snap as they sprang back
into position, and the mischief was done. The two foes were locked
together in an embrace which death itself could not loosen.

The next few weeks were worse than a nightmare. If one went forward, the
other had to go backward; and neither could go anywhere or do anything
without getting the consent of the other or else carrying him along by
main force. Many things could not be done at all--not even when both
were willing and anxious to do them. They could not run or leap. They
could not see, except out of the corners of their eyes. They would never
again toss those beautiful antlers in the air, for they had come
together with their heads held low, and in that position they must
remain. They could not even lie down without twisting their necks till
they ached as if they were breaking. With their noses to the ground, and
with anger and misery in their hearts, they pushed and hauled each other
this way and that through the woods. And wherever they went, they were
always struggling and fighting and striving for every mouthful of food
that came within reach. It was little enough that they found at the
best, and it would have been better for both of them if they could have
agreed to divide it evenly, but of course that would have been asking
too much of deer nature. Each took all he could get, and at first they
were so evenly matched that each secured somewhere near his fair share.
They spied a beechnut on the ground, or a bit of lichen, or a tender
twig; and together they made a dive for it. Two noses were thrust
forward--no, not forward, sidewise--and two mouths were open to grasp
the precious morsel which would enable its possessor to keep up the
fight a little longer. Sometimes one got it, and sometimes the other;
but from the very beginning our Buck was a shade the stronger, and his
superiority grew with every mouthful that he managed to wrest from his
fellow-prisoner. Both of them were losing flesh rapidly, but he kept his
longer than the other. And at last they reached the point where, by
reason of his greater strength, he got everything and the other nothing,
and then the end was near. It would have come long before if both had
not been in prime condition on the day of the battle