use," he said, "I shall run up over the hill and take my chance. But I
vow that I'll never enter this wood again. It's high time that they
should know that I won't stand it."

So off he ran again, but the Deer waited and listened; and they could
hear behind them a steady tapping of sticks along the whole hill-side,
which came slowly closer and closer to them. And every creature in the
wood came stealing forward round them, Rabbits and Cock-Pheasants and
Hens and Blackbirds and Thrushes, and a score of other Birds, dodging
this way and that, backward and forward, and listening with all their
ears. The Deer went forward a little way, but presently a
Cock-Pheasant came sailing high in the air over their heads. They
watched him flying on, vigorous and strong, till all of a sudden his
head dropped down, and his wings closed; and as he fell with a crash
to the ground they heard the report of a gun ring out sharp and angry
before them. Then they hesitated to go further, but other shots kept
popping by ones and twos behind them, till at last they turned up the
hill as the Cock-Pheasant had turned, and began to climb steadily
through the oak-coppice.

As they drew near the top of the hill they heard more tapping just
above them, and going on a little further found the old Cock-Pheasant
crouching down just below a broad green path. And on the path above
him stood a little rosy-cheeked Boy in a ragged cap, with a coat far
too big for him and a great comforter which hung down to his toes,
beating two sticks together and grinning with delight. The Deer
thought the Pheasant a great coward not to run boldly past so small a
creature, but, as they waited, there came two more figures along the
path and stood close to the Boy; and the Stag remembered them both,
for they were the fair man and the pretty girl whom he had seen when
he was a calf. The man looked a little older, for there was now a
little fair hair, which was most carefully tended, on his upper lip,
and he held himself very erect, with his shoulders well back and his
chest thrown out. There he stood, tall and motionless, with his gun on
his shoulder, watching for every movement and listening for every
rustle, so still and silent that the Deer almost wondered whether he
were alive. The girl stood behind him, as silent as he; and the Stag
noticed as a curious thing, which he had never observed in them
before, that both wore a scarf of green and black round their necks.
But he