p the hill towards the
refuge that he had chosen, he caught sight of his mother racing over
the yellow grass at her topmost speed, and no longer one couple but
sixteen couples of hounds racing after her in compact order, not one
of them gaining an inch on his neighbour. He saw her gallop up to a
gate in a fence and fly over it like an arrow from the bow; and a few
minutes after her the hounds also came to the same gate and flew over
it likewise, without pausing for an instant, like a handful of white
blossoms driven before the wind. Then he turned into the plantation,
frightened out of his life, and ran down through them, leaping
desperately over the stunted trees and scaring the Woodcocks out of
their five wits. And from the plantation he ran down through the
oak-woods on the cliff, and from thence to the beach, and then without
pausing for a moment he ran straight into the sea and swam out over
the waves as only a deer can swim.

The cool water refreshed him; and presently he stopped swimming and
turned round, floating quietly on the surface, to see if he was still
in danger. But the woods were all silent, and there was no sign of
hound or horse on the shore or on the cliff-paths; so after waiting
for another quarter of an hour he swam back, and climbed up over the
cliff again till he found a stream of fresh water. There he drank a
good draught, and passing on came upon a Woodcock, one of those that
he had frightened on his way down. The little bird was rather cross at
having been disturbed in the middle of her day-dreams, for she said:
"What on earth made you come tearing through this wood in that mad way
just now? There was nobody hunting you, and nothing of any kind to
frighten you. I was in the middle of a delightful dream about Norway,
and you quite spoilt it." But he soon soothed her, for woodcocks are
easy-going little creatures, and went away and lay down, very much
relieved to know that he was unpursued.

When evening came he went away to seek his mother, but he could not
find her; and all next day he wandered about asking every deer that
he met if they had seen her, but not one could tell him anything. He
met Aunt Yeld and Ruddy, but they knew nothing, and he could not ask
the hounds who might have told him; so at last very sorrowfully he
gave up searching and made up his mind that she would never come back.
And he was right, for she never did come back, and he never saw her
again. But, after all, he was o