d me for an hour. Once we exasperated a
band of wild pigs, and they took after us. The Swift One dared a wide
leap between trees that was too much for me. I had to take to the
ground. There were the pigs. I didn't care. I struck the earth within
a yard of the nearest one. They flanked me as I ran, and chased me into
two different trees out of the line of my pursuit of the Swift One. I
ventured the ground again, doubled back, and crossed a wide open space,
with the whole band grunting, bristling, and tusk-gnashing at my heels.

If I had tripped or stumbled in that open space, there would have been
no chance for me. But I didn't. And I didn't care whether I did or not.
I was in such mood that I would have faced old Saber-Tooth himself, or a
score of arrow-shooting Fire People. Such was the madness of love...with
me. With the Swift One it was different. She was very wise. She did
not take any real risks, and I remember, on looking back across the
centuries to that wild love-chase, that when the pigs delayed me she
did not run away very fast, but waited, rather, for me to take up the
pursuit again. Also, she directed her retreat before me, going always in
the direction she wanted to go.

At last came the dark. She led me around the mossy shoulder of a canyon
wall that out-jutted among the trees. After that we penetrated a dense
mass of underbrush that scraped and ripped me in passing. But she never
ruffled a hair. She knew the way. In the midst of the thicket was a
large oak. I was very close to her when she climbed it; and in the
forks, in the nest-shelter I had sought so long and vainly, I caught
her.

The hyena had taken our trail again, and he now sat down on the ground
and made hungry noises. But we did not mind, and we laughed at him when
he snarled and went away through the thicket. It was the spring-time,
and the night noises were many and varied. As was the custom at that
time of the year, there was much fighting among the animals. From
the nest we could hear the squealing and neighing of wild horses, the
trumpeting of elephants, and the roaring of lions. But the moon came
out, and the air was warm, and we laughed and were unafraid.

I remember, next morning, that we came upon two ruffled cock-birds that
fought so ardently that I went right up to them and caught them by their
necks. Thus did the Swift One and I get our wedding breakfast. They were
delicious. It was easy to catch birds in the spring of the year.