r-carriers and those who had gone down to the river
to drink. The whole horde fled to the caves. It was our habit, at such
times, to flee first and investigate afterward. We waited in the mouths
of our caves and watched. After some time a Fire-Man stepped cautiously
into the open space. It was the little wizened old hunter. He stood for
a long time and watched us, looking our caves and the cliff-wall up and
down. He descended one of the run-ways to a drinking-place, returning
a few minutes later by another run-way. Again he stood and watched us
carefully, for a long time. Then he turned on his heel and limped
into the forest, leaving us calling querulously and plaintively to one
another from the cave-mouths.

CHAPTER XVI

I found her down in the old neighborhood near the blueberry swamp,
where my mother lived and where Lop-Ear and I had built our first
tree-shelter. It was unexpected. As I came under the tree I heard the
familiar soft sound and looked up. There she was, the Swift One, sitting
on a limb and swinging her legs back and forth as she looked at me.

I stood still for some time. The sight of her had made me very happy.
And then an unrest and a pain began to creep in on this happiness. I
started to climb the tree after her, and she retreated slowly out the
limb. Just as I reached for her, she sprang through the air and landed
in the branches of the next tree. From amid the rustling leaves she
peeped out at me and made soft sounds. I leaped straight for her, and
after an exciting chase the situation was duplicated, for there she was,
making soft sounds and peeping out from the leaves of a third tree.

It was borne in upon me that somehow it was different now from the old
days before Lop-Ear and I had gone on our adventure-journey. I wanted
her, and I knew that I wanted her. And she knew it, too. That was why
she would not let me come near her. I forgot that she was truly the
Swift One, and that in the art of climbing she had been my teacher. I
pursued her from tree to tree, and ever she eluded me, peeping back at
me with kindly eyes, making soft sounds, and dancing and leaping and
teetering before me just out of reach. The more she eluded me, the more
I wanted to catch her, and the lengthening shadows of the afternoon bore
witness to the futility of my effort.

As I pursued her, or sometimes rested in an adjoining tree and watched
her, I noticed the change in her. She was larger, heavier, more
grown