CHAPTER XL
HAPPY DAYS IN THE GREEN FOREST
These were happy days in the Green Forest. At least, they were happy forLightfoot the Deer. They were the happiest days he had ever known. Yousee, he had won beautiful, slender, young Miss Daintyfoot, and now shewas no longer Miss Daintyfoot but Mrs. Lightfoot. Lightfoot was surethat there was no one anywhere so beautiful as she, and Mrs. Lightfootknew that there was no one so handsome and brave as he.
Wherever Lightfoot went, Mrs. Lightfoot went. He showed her all hisfavorite hiding-places. He led her to his favorite eating-places. Shedid 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 hadstopped to think how day after day she had managed to keep out of hissight while he hunted for her, he would have realized that there waslittle he could show her which she did not already know. But he didn'tstop to think and proudly led her from place to place. And Mrs.Lightfoot wisely expressed delight with all she saw quite as if it wereall new.
Of course, all the little people of the Green Forest hurried to paytheir respects to Mrs. Lightfoot and to tell Lightfoot how glad theyfelt for him. And they really did feel glad. You see, they all lovedLightfoot and they knew that now he would be happier than ever, and thatthere would be no danger of his leaving the Green Forest because ofloneliness. The Green Forest would not be the same at all withoutLightfoot the Deer.
Lightfoot told Mrs. Lightfoot all about the terrible days of the huntingseason and how glad he was that she had not been in the Green Forestthen. He told her how the hunters with terrible guns had given him norest and how he had had to swim the Big River to get away from thehounds.
"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 Ihappened to come down to the Green Forest. They hunted me so up therethat I did not dare stay, and I came down here thinking that there mightbe fewer hunters. I wouldn't have believed that I could ever be thankfulto 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'tbeen driven down from the Great Mountain, I never would have found_you_?"
"You mean, I never would have found _you_," retorted Lightfoot. "I guessI owe these hunters more than you do. I owe them the greatest happinessI have ever known, but I never would have thought of it myself. Isn't itqueer how things which seem the very worst possible sometimes turn outto be the very best possible?"
Blacky the Crow is one of Lightfoot's friends, but sometimes evenfriends are envious. It is so with Blacky. He insists that he is quiteas important in the Green Forest as is Lightfoot and that his doings arequite as interesting. Therefore just to please him the next book is tobe Blacky the Crow.
The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer Page 7