tlety, their nobility and their wisdom. For though I would have you
love the stories of great men and take delight in the reading of good
books, yet I would have you take no less delight in the birds and the
beasts that share with you your home, and in the observance of their
goings out and their comings in, of their friends and of their
enemies, of their prosperities and of their perils; whereby you will
gain not only that which the great Mr. Milton (in his tract of
Education) hath called the helpful experiences of hunters, fowlers and
fishermen, but such a love of God's creatures as will make the world
the fuller of joys for you because the fuller of friends; and this not
in one wise only, for I have ever noticed that they which be fondest
of dumb creatures are given to be tenderest to their fellow-men._

_So here you have the life of a wild red deer, set down with such
poor skill as I possess, even as the deer have told it to me in many a
long ride and many a stirring chase, and as they have told it to all
others that would listen, to such great hunters of old as the noble
Count Gaston de Foix and the worthy Sieur Jacques du Fouilloux, and to
many friends, of whom some indeed are passed away, but many yet
remain, striving ever to hear more of the same story. And if my tale
be short, yet blame me not, for it is for yourself by your own
learning of the deer to enlarge and to enrich it; so that when your
nine years are waxed to threescore and nine, you may take down this
small volume and write it anew, out of the treasures of a fuller
knowledge than mine own, for the generations that shall come after you
in this our ancient and well-beloved home._

_And so not doubting of your kindly acceptance hereof, I bid you
heartily farewell, being always_

_Your very loving kinsman and faithful friend to serve you,_

_J. W. F._

_Castle Hill.
This 26th of September, 1897._

THE STORY OF A RED-DEER

CHAPTER I

Once upon a time there was a little Red-Deer Calf. You know what a
Red-Deer is, for you of all boys have been brought up to know, though
it may be that you have never seen a calf very close to you. A very
pretty little fellow he was, downy-haired and white-spotted, though as
yet his legs were rather long and his ears were rather large, for he
was still only a very few weeks old. But he did not think himself a
baby by any means, for he was an early calf and