Stag; "but hide yourself if you can, my Lord
Salmon, for the hounds will be down presently."

But for all the Salmon's warnings he went on yet a little further, for
he knew that he should find another stream flowing into that wherein
he stood, before he reached the bridge. So down he went till he
reached it, and then without leaving the water he turned up this
second stream for another mile. Then at last he went up into the
covert, turning and twisting as he had seen old Aunt Yeld on the moor,
and picking out every bit of stony ground, just as his mother had
taught him.

Meanwhile he heard the hounds trying down the other stream far beyond
the spot where he had left it; and when at last they tried back up the
water after him the evening was closing in, and the scent was so weak
and all of them so tired that they could only hunt very slowly. So he,
like a cunning fellow, kept passing backward and forward through the
wood from one stream to the other, till at last he began to grow tired
himself; when luckily he met the Salmon again, who led him down to a
deep pool, where he sunk himself under the bank, as he had once seen
Aunt Yeld sink herself. He lay there till night came and the valley
was quiet and safe, and then he jumped out and lay down, very thankful
to the friendly waters that had saved his life.

CHAPTER IX

Our Deer was so much pleased with himself after his escape that he
began to look upon himself as quite grown up, and hastened back to the
moor as soon as October came to find himself a wife. I needn't tell
you that it was his old play-fellow, Ruddy's daughter, who had been
born in the same year as himself, that he was thinking of; and he soon
found that she wished for nothing better. But most unluckily the old
Stag, whose squire he had been, had also fallen in love with her, and
was determined to take her for himself. He would run after her all
day, belling proposals at the top of his voice; and his lungs were so
much more powerful than our Deer's that, do what he would, our friend
could not get a word in edgeways. At last the Hind was so much bored
by the noise and the worry that she made up her mind to steal away
with our Deer quietly one night, and run off with him under cover of
the darkness; which was what he had long been pressing her to do
whenever he could find a chance.

So off they started together for the quiet valley to which the
Wild-Duck had shown him the way when he was still a