ing with rage, they lowered their heads
and plunged together. Their antlers clashed with a noise that
rang through the Green Forest, and both fell to their knees.
There they pushed and struggled. Then they separated and backed
away, to repeat the movement over again. It was a terrible fight.
Everybody said so. If they had not known before, everybody
knew now what those great antlers were for. Once the big stranger
managed to reach Lightfoot's right shoulder with one of the sharp
points of his antlers and made a long tear in Lightfoot's gray
coat. It only made Lightfoot fight harder.

Sometimes they would rear up and strike with their sharp
hoofs. Back and forth they plunged, and the ground was torn up by
their feet. Both were getting out of breath, and from time to
time they had to stop for a moment's rest. Then they would come
together again more fiercely than ever. Never had such a fight
been seen in the Green Forest.

CHAPTER XXXVIII: An Unseen Watcher

As Lightfoot the Deer and the big stranger from the Great
Mountain fought in the little opening near the pond of Paddy the
Beaver, neither knew or cared who saw them. Each was filled fully
with rage and determined to drive the other from the Green Forest.
Each was fighting for the right to win the love of Miss Daintyfoot.

Neither of them knew that Miss Daintyfoot herself was watching
them. But she was. She had heard the clash of their great antlers
as they had come together the first time, and she had known
exactly what it meant. Timidly she had stolen forward to a
thicket where, safely hidden, she could watch that terrible
fight. She knew that they were fighting for her. Of course.
She knew it just as she had known how both had been hunting for her.
What she didn't know for some time was which one she wanted to win
that fight.

Both Lightfoot and the big stranger were handsome. Yes, indeed,
they were very handsome. Lightfoot was just a little bit the
bigger and it seemed to her just a little bit the handsomer.
She almost wanted him to win. Then, when she saw how bravely the
big stranger was fighting and how well he was holding his own, even
though he was a little smaller than Lightfoot, she almost hoped
he would win.

That great fight lasted a long time. To pretty Miss Daintyfoot
it seemed that it never would end. But after a while Lightfoot's
greater size and strength began to tell. Little by little the big
stranger was force