e from the coverts on the cliff below them, and
a man screaming at the top of his voice. The sounds came nearer, and
then there was a great clatter of branches, and the great Stag, whom
they had known on the moor, came bounding leisurely through the
thicket. His head was thrown back and his mouth wide open; and very
proud and very terrible he looked as he cantered straight up to them.
He jerked his head impatiently at them, and said very sternly, "Off
with you! quick!" And the Hind jumped up in terror and the Calf with
her; and as they ran off they could see the old Stag lie down in their
place with his great horns laid back on his shoulders, and his chin
pressed tight to the ground.

But they had no time to lose, for the hounds were coming closer; so
they bustled for a little way through the thicket, and then the Hind
led the Calf into a path, because of course his little legs could not
keep pace with hers in the tangle of the plantation. Thus they ran on
for a little way, till they heard the sound of a horse coming towards
them, when they turned into the thicket again and lay down. And
presently a man in a red coat came trotting by with his eyes fixed on
the ground, and meeting the hounds stopped them at once. Then he
pulled out a horn, blew one single note, and trotted away with the
hounds, just three couple of them, at his heels.

But the Hind and Calf lay still; and presently they heard two more
horses coming gently along the path, and two human voices chattering
very fast. And who should ride by but the pretty girl whom he had seen
looking at him a few days before! A man was riding with her, but not
the man that he had seen with her before, for this one was dark, and
besides he was rather older; but as they passed they saw her smile at
him, and open her pretty eyes at him, in a way that seemed to please
him very well.

So they rode on till their chattering could be heard no more; and then
another man came riding by on a grey horse, quite alone, whom the Calf
recognised as the fair man that had been with the girl when first he
saw her; and very doleful and miserable he seemed to be. For he
stopped on the path opposite to them, looking down at the ground with
a troubled face, and kept flicking savagely at the heather with his
whip, till at last he flicked his poor horse on the nose by mistake,
and was obliged to pat him and tell him how sorry he was. How long he
might have stopped there no one knows; but all of a