find you if I want you."

And our Deer used to go as he was told, never doubting that all was
right; nor was it until late in the autumn that he found out his
mistake. For one day while he was lying quietly in the short
plantation above the cliffs he heard the familiar cry of hounds, and
presently up came the old Stag. He jerked his head at him, just as the
other old stag had done when he was a calf, and said very roughly:
"Now, then, give me your bed, young fellow, and run instead of me.
Look sharp." And our Deer jumped up at once, but he was so angry and
astonished at being treated in this way now that he was grown up, that
he quite forgot his manners, and said very shortly, "Sha'n't!"

"How dare you? Go on at once," said the old Stag, quivering with rage
and lowering his head, but our Deer lowered his head too and made
ready to fight him, though he was but half of his size; and it would
have gone hard with him, if just at that moment the hounds had not
come up. Then the old Stag threw himself down into his bed with a
wicked chuckle; and the hounds made a rush at our Deer and forced him
to fly for his life. So there he was, starting alone before the hounds
for the first time, and with only a few minutes to make up his mind
whither he would go. But what other refuge should he seek but the wood
where his mother had led him as a calf? So he left the covert at once
and started off gallantly over the heather.

He ran on for five or six miles, for he had been frightened by finding
the hounds so close to him when the old Stag drove him out. But after
a time he stopped and listened, for he had heard no voice of hounds
behind him since he left the covert, and began to doubt whether they
were chasing him after all. He pricked his ears intently, and turned
round to find if the wind would bear him any scent of his enemies. No!
there was not a sign of them. Evidently they were not following him,
and he was safe. And this indeed was the case, for, though he did not
know it, some men had seen the two deer turn and fight, and, marking
the spot where the old Stag had lain down, had brought the hounds back
and roused him again. But our Deer was too wary to make sure of his
safety without the help of a peat-stream, so he cantered on to the
next water and ran up it for a long way till it parted into three or
four tiny threads, for he was now on the treacherous, boggy ground
where the rivers rise. Then he left the stream and lay down in