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+Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Nimble Deer, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Nimble Deer
+       Sleepy-Time Tales
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Illustrator: Harry L. Smith
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2007 [EBook #21619]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF NIMBLE DEER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Thomas Strong, Linda McKeown
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       THE TALE OF NIMBLE DEER
+
+
+         _SLEEPY-TIME TALES_
+
+       (Trademark Registered)
+
+                BY
+
+        ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+             AUTHOR OF
+
+         _TUCK-ME-IN TALES_
+
+       (Trademark Registered)
+
+     THE TALE OF CUFFY BEAR
+     THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL
+     THE TALE OF TOMMY FOX
+     THE TALE OF FATTY COON
+     THE TALE OF BILLY WOODCHUCK
+     THE TALE OF JIMMY RABBIT
+     THE TALE OF PETER MINK
+     THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK
+     THE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVER
+     THE TALE OF PADDY MUSKRAT
+     THE TALE OF FERDINAND FROG
+     THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE
+     THE TALE OF TIMOTHY TURTLE
+     THE TALE OF MAJOR MONKEY
+     THE TALE OF BENNY BADGER
+
+
+[Illustration: Nimble Told Everybody He Met.
+                 _Frontispiece_--(_Page 27_)]
+
+
+
+
+         _SLEEPY-TIME TALES_
+       (Trademark Registered)
+
+
+             THE TALE OF
+             NIMBLE DEER
+
+
+                 BY
+         ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+
+             Author of
+
+         "TUCK-ME-IN TALES"
+       (Trademark Registered)
+                and
+        "SLUMBER-TOWN TALES"
+       (Trademark Registered)
+
+
+          ILLUSTRATED BY
+          HARRY L. SMITH
+
+
+              NEW YORK
+           GROSSET & DUNLAP
+             PUBLISHERS
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+          COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
+           GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+
+
+
+               CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                            PAGE
+
+      I THE SPOTTED FAWN              7
+
+     II LEARNING THINGS              13
+
+    III AN INTERRUPTED NAP           18
+
+     IV PLANNING A PICNIC            23
+
+      V NIMBLE'S MISTAKE             29
+
+     VI AN UNEXPECTED PARTY          35
+
+    VII THE STRANGE LIGHT            39
+
+   VIII MRS. DEER EXPLAINS           44
+
+     IX A SPIKE HORN                 49
+
+      X AT THE CARROT PATCH          54
+
+     XI CUFFY AND THE CAVE           60
+
+    XII CUFFY IS MISSING             65
+
+   XIII CUFFY BEAR WAKENS            70
+
+    XIV ANTLERS                      75
+
+     XV A MOCK BATTLE                79
+
+    XVI MR. CROW LOOKS ON            84
+
+   XVII WHAT BROWNIE WANTED          90
+
+  XVIII THE MULEY COW                96
+
+    XIX THE JUMPING CONTEST         100
+
+     XX SOLVING A PROBLEM           104
+
+    XXI AN UNTOLD SECRET            109
+
+   XXII THE NEW HAT-RACK            113
+
+  XXIII HOW NIMBLE HELPED           118
+
+   XXIV UNCLE JERRY CHUCK           123
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF
+NIMBLE DEER
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE SPOTTED FAWN
+
+
+When Nimble's mother first looked at him she couldn't believe she would
+ever be able to raise him. He was such a tiny, frail, spotted thing that
+he seemed too delicate for a life of adventure on the wooded ridges and
+in the tangled swamps under the shadow of Blue Mountain.
+
+"Bless me!" cried the good lady. "This child's not much taller than an
+overgrown beet top and he can't be any heavier than one of Farmer
+Green's prize cabbages. And his legs--" she exclaimed--"his legs are no
+thicker than pea pods.... They'll be ready to eat in another month," she
+added, meaning _not_ her child's legs, as you might have supposed, but
+Farmer Green's early June peas. For Nimble's mother was very fond of
+certain vegetables that did not grow wild in the woods.
+
+Of course young Nimble did not know what she was talking about. He had a
+great deal to learn. And he would have to wait until he was a good deal
+bigger before his mother took him on an excursion, by night, across the
+fields to Farmer Green's garden patch.
+
+All at once Nimble leaped quickly upon his slightly wobbly legs. He
+trembled and gazed up at his mother with a look of fear in his great
+eyes. At the same time his mother, too, lifted her head and listened
+for a few moments. "Don't be afraid!" she said then, to Nimble. "That's
+old Spot--Farmer Green's dog--barking. But he's down near the barns, so
+we don't need to worry."
+
+That was the first time Nimble had ever heard a dog's voice. Yet no one
+needed to tell him that it wasn't a pleasant sound.
+
+Even his mother couldn't help feeling that she had better put a wide
+stretch of rough country between her new youngster and old Spot's home.
+So in a little while she led the way slowly along the pine grown ridge
+which bent around a shoulder of the mountain. She was headed for the
+spring which marked the beginning of Broad Brook.
+
+Her little spotted fawn, Nimble, kept close beside her. Slowly as his
+mother moved, he found the traveling none too easy. And he was glad when
+she stopped in a pocket-like clearing. There she spoke to a proud
+speckled bird who was sitting on a log and amusing himself by spreading
+his tail feathers into a beautiful fan.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Grouse!" said Nimble's mother.
+
+"Good morning, madam!" replied the gentleman with the fan. "What a
+handsome child you have! There's nothing quite like spots--or
+speckles--to add to a person's looks."
+
+"They _are_ pretty," Nimble's mother agreed with a happy glance at her
+son.
+
+"I can't say he favors his mother," Mr. Grouse remarked.
+
+"Oh, I had spots enough when I was young," she explained. "You see, all
+our family lose our spots as we grow up."
+
+"I'm glad to say," Mr. Grouse said with a flirt of his tail, "that all
+our family keep their spots, every one of them."
+
+"We get to be so swift-footed that we don't need spots," said Nimble's
+mother.
+
+That speech seemed to displease Mr. Grouse.
+
+"I hope," he cried, "you don't mean to say that we Grouse aren't swift!"
+
+"No, indeed!" Nimble's mother answered hastily.
+
+"I should hope _not_!" was Mr. Grouse's response to that. "For everybody
+knows that we go up like rockets at the slightest sign of danger."
+
+"Exactly!" said Nimble's mother. "You are so swift that you don't really
+need those spots to help conceal yourself, once you're grown up."
+
+"They're handy to have, all the same," he told her. "And as for this
+youngster of yours, you needn't worry much about him. He'll be safe
+enough in the woods. He looks just like a patch of sunlight that has
+fallen through a tree top upon a leaf-strewn bank."
+
+Nimble's mother was pleased to hear that.
+
+"Yes!" said Mr. Grouse cheerfully. "He'll be safe enough--except for
+the Foxes."
+
+And that remark didn't please Nimble's mother at all.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+LEARNING THINGS
+
+
+Nimble's mother hadn't liked Mr. Grouse's remark about Foxes. Somehow
+she couldn't put Foxes out of her mind. And not once did she mean to let
+Nimble wander out of her sight.
+
+At first, when he was only a tiny chap, it was easy for her to keep her
+young son near her. But Nimble grew a little livelier with each day that
+passed. And it wasn't long before he began to annoy his mother and worry
+her, too. For he soon fell into the habit of dodging behind something or
+other, such as a baby pine tree or a clump of blackberry bushes, when
+his mother wasn't looking. Every time she missed her spotted fawn the
+poor lady was sure a Fox had snatched him up and dragged him away. And
+when she found Nimble again she was so glad that she hadn't the heart
+to punish him.
+
+However, one day she talked to him quite severely.
+
+"Do you want a Fox to catch--and eat--you?" she asked him.
+
+"No, Mother!... Has a Fox ever eaten you?"
+
+"Certainly not!" Nimble's mother answered.
+
+"Do you expect to be caught by a Fox?"
+
+"No, indeed!" said his mother.
+
+"Then there can't be any great danger," Nimble remarked lightly.
+
+"Ah! There's always danger of Foxes so long as you're a little fawn,"
+she explained. "When you're grown up--or even half grown--no Fox would
+dare touch you. But if you wandered away alone at your tender age and
+you met a Fox----" Well, the poor lady was so upset by the mere thought
+of what might happen that she couldn't say anything more just then.
+
+But her son Nimble was not upset.
+
+"If I met a Fox," he declared bravely, "I'd be safe enough. I'd stand
+perfectly still. And he wouldn't be able to see me, on account of my
+spots."
+
+"Ah! But if the wind happened to be blowing his way he'd be sure to
+smell you," cried Nimble's mother. "And he would find you. And he
+would jump at you."
+
+"I'd run away from him then," said Nimble stoutly.
+
+His mother shook her head.
+
+"You're spry for your age. But you're too slow to escape a Fox. You're
+not quick enough for that yet. You don't know how quick Foxes are. So
+look out! Look out for a sly fellow with a pointed nose and a bushy
+tail!"
+
+In spite of all these warnings Nimble didn't feel the least bit alarmed.
+And the older he grew the less he heeded his mother's words. He thought
+she was too careful. She seemed always to be on the watch for some
+danger. She was forever stopping to look back, lest somebody or
+something might be following her. Whenever she picked out a good resting
+place behind a clump of evergreens, out of the wind, she never lay down
+without first retracing her steps for a little way and peering all
+around. Then, of course, she had to walk back again before she sank down
+on the bed of her choosing. It all seemed very silly to young Nimble.
+
+"What's the use," he finally asked her one day, "what's the use of
+fussing so much over your back tracks?"
+
+"You should always know what's behind you," said his mother. "Besides,
+I can't rest well if I'm uneasy."
+
+"Do you feel easy now?" he inquired, for she had just then lain down
+after giving her back tracks her usual attention.
+
+"Quite!" said Nimble's mother, as she closed her eyes and heaved a deep
+sigh of contentment.
+
+Her answer pleased Nimble. He smiled faintly as he watched her closely.
+And he chuckled when his mother's head nodded three times and then sank
+lower and lower.
+
+Presently Nimble rose to his feet, without making the slightest rustle.
+And very carefully he stole away.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+AN INTERRUPTED NAP
+
+
+Nimble, the fawn, stole away into the woods while his mother was
+sleeping. And when he went he took great pains not to disturb her.
+He was careful not to step on a single twig. For young as he was, he
+knew that the sound of a breaking twig was enough to rouse his mother
+instantly out of the deepest sleep. And he made sure that he didn't set
+his little feet on any stones. For he knew that at the merest click of
+a hoof his mother would bound up and discover that he had left her.
+
+So Nimble trod only upon the soft carpet of pine needles and made not
+the slightest noise. Meanwhile his mother slept peacefully on--or as
+peacefully as anybody can who is a light sleeper and keeps one ear
+always cocked to catch every stir in the forest.
+
+She never missed her son at all until she found herself suddenly wide
+awake and on her feet, ready to run. Not seeing Nimble beside her, for a
+moment or two she forgot she had a child. Her only thought was to flee
+from the creature that was crashing through the underbrush beyond the
+old stone wall and drawing nearer to her every instant.
+
+It was a wonder that she didn't dash off then and there. Indeed she took
+one leap before she remembered who she was and that she had a youngster
+named Nimble.
+
+Then, of course, she stopped short and looked wildly around. But she saw
+no little spotted fawn anywhere.
+
+She had been startled enough, before, roused as she was out of a sound
+sleep. And now she was terribly frightened.
+
+"Nimble!" she called. "Where are you?"
+
+"Here I am!" Nimble answered. Even as he spoke he burst into sight,
+leaping the stone wall in such a way that his mother couldn't help
+feeling proud of him.
+
+"What's the matter?" she cried. "Who's chasing you?"
+
+"Nobody's chasing me," Nimble told her. "When I saw the Fox I hurried
+back here."
+
+"The Fox!" his mother exclaimed. "Well, he won't dare touch you while I
+am with you." She began to breathe easily again. If it was only a Fox
+she certainly didn't intend to run. "Where did you see the Fox?" she
+demanded.
+
+"He was right over my head," Nimble said.
+
+"My goodness!" his mother gasped. "That was dangerous. Was he on a bank
+above you?"
+
+"He was in a tree," Nimble replied.
+
+His mother gave him a queer look.
+
+"What's that?" she asked him sharply. "In a tree? What did he look like?
+Was he red?"
+
+"He was grayish and he had black rings around his long bushy tail; and
+his long pointed nose stuck out from under a black mask."
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Nimble's mother. "You didn't see a Fox. You saw a
+Coon!"
+
+Nimble was puzzled.
+
+"You told me once," he reminded his mother, "that a Fox was a sly fellow
+with a bushy tail and a long pointed nose. And this person in the tree
+had----"
+
+"Yes! Yes!" said his mother. "Now listen to what I say: A Fox is red.
+And his tail has no rings at all. And Foxes don't climb trees."
+
+"Yes, Mother!" was Nimble's meek answer.
+
+He was glad to learn all that. And he was glad, too, that his mother
+hadn't asked him how he happened to stray off alone into the woods.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+PLANNING A PICNIC
+
+
+While he was only a fawn Nimble became very fond of water lilies. But he
+didn't carry them as a bouquet, nor wear one in his buttonhole. He was
+fond of lilies in a different way: he liked to eat them, and their flat,
+round, glossy pads. At night his mother often led him to the edge of the
+lake on the other side of Blue Mountain and there they feasted.
+
+It was wonderful to stand in the cool water, not too far from the shore,
+with the moonlight shimmering on the ruffled lake, and breathe in the
+sweet scent of the lilies while nibbling at their pads.
+
+"There's nothing," said Nimble to his mother one night, "nothing so good
+to eat as water lilies."
+
+His mother said, "Humph! Wait till you've tasted carrots!"
+
+"Carrots!" Nimble echoed. "What are carrots and where can I find some?
+Do they grow in this lake?"
+
+"Carrots," his mother explained, "are vegetables and they grow in Farmer
+Green's garden."
+
+When he heard that, Nimble wanted to start for Farmer Green's place at
+once. But his mother said, "No!" And he soon saw that she meant it, too.
+
+However, the word _carrots_ was in his mouth a good deal of the time,
+for days and nights afterward. But Nimble wasn't satisfied with having
+only the _word_ in his mouth. There was no taste to that at all. Nor
+could he chew it, nor swallow it. He was wild to bite into a carrot and
+see if it actually was more toothsome than a water lily. Again and again
+he said to his mother, "Can't we go down to Farmer Green's garden patch
+to-night? If we wait much longer somebody else will eat all the carrots
+before we get a taste of them." Or maybe he would exclaim, "Let's have
+some carrots for supper! Please!"
+
+It was no wonder that Nimble's mother grew very tired of his teasing. At
+last she said to him, when he was urging her to take him down the hill
+and across the meadow to Farmer Green's vegetable garden, "There's no
+sense in our going down there now. The carrots aren't big enough yet.
+They aren't ready to eat. But later, if you show you're trustworthy, and
+if you mind well, and if you grow enough, and if you can start quickly
+and run fast, perhaps I'll see that you have your first meal of
+carrots. Now, don't bother me any more!"
+
+Well, there were so many _ifs_ in his mother's promise that Nimble
+almost gave up hope of ever getting to Farmer Green's garden patch. He
+didn't quite dare expect that his mother would take him there with her.
+But he made up his mind that if she didn't he would go on a carrot hunt
+alone as soon as he could.
+
+At the same time he practiced minding his mother, which was not always
+a pleasant thing to do. And he practiced starting and running, both of
+which were a good deal of fun. As for growing, Nimble did not need to
+practice that at all; for he was getting heavier and taller every day,
+without doing anything more than to eat and to sleep and to have the
+best time possible.
+
+Meanwhile he told everybody he met that if all went well he would be
+eating carrots some day. And when his friends learned that he planned
+to go on an excursion to Farmer Green's garden patch there wasn't one
+of them that didn't say he would like to go too.
+
+Jimmy Rabbit said he really ought to have a look at the cabbages. And if
+Nimble didn't mind he thought it would be pleasant to join the party.
+Patty Coon remarked that there were certain matters connected with corn
+which he must attend to, and if there was no objection he would go along
+with the rest, when the time came for the excursion. Even Cuffy Bear,
+who almost never went near the farm buildings, declared that there was
+nothing he would enjoy more than to make the trip with Nimble and his
+mother. He had once tasted baked beans. And ever since that occasion he
+had meant to see if he couldn't find some around Farmer Green's house.
+
+Of course it would have been awkward to say no. So Nimble said yes to
+everybody. He even promised that he would let all his friends know when
+the excursion should take place.
+
+But of all these things he said not a word to his mother. He was not
+sure that they would please her. In fact he was sure that they
+wouldn't.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+NIMBLE'S MISTAKE
+
+
+One morning Nimble's mother said to him, "To-night, just as the moon
+rises, we'll start for Farmer Green's garden patch."
+
+He knew what that meant. It meant that he was going to know, at last,
+what carrots tasted like. And he was delighted.
+
+"You've improved fast," his mother told him. "You've grown a good deal.
+You start to run much more quickly than you did a month ago; and you're
+quite speedy now. I must say that you don't mind me any too well. Take
+care that to-night you do exactly as you're ordered!"
+
+Nimble promised. "I'll be good," he said. "No matter how many carrots
+you want me to eat, I'll finish every one."
+
+"No matter if you haven't had a chance to eat a single carrot, if I
+tell you to run you must obey instantly," his mother warned him. "Two
+seconds' delay might be fatal," she added solemnly. "If we hear a twig
+snap you mustn't stop to look nor listen."
+
+"Yes!" said Nimble. But ten minutes later he couldn't have repeated a
+word that his mother said--except that they were going to start for the
+garden when the moon rose. That much he told Jimmy Rabbit when he met
+him in the woods a little while afterward. And Jimmy Rabbit agreed to
+get the news, somehow, to Fatty Coon and Cuffy Bear.
+
+He was as good as his promise--even better. For Jimmy told everybody he
+met that day. He explained about the excursion to the garden patch and
+said that every one must be ready to start just as the moon peeped over
+the rim of the world, for Nimble Deer's mother wouldn't wait for anybody
+that wasn't on hand.
+
+Nimble found that day a long one. He was so eager to get a carrot
+between his lips that he thought night would never come. But darkness
+fell at last. And some hours later his mother said to him, "Are you
+ready?"
+
+He was. So together they passed silently along the old runway which
+led, as his mother knew, to the pasture fence. The woods were inky
+black, for the moon had not yet risen. But Nimble's mother remarked
+that she thought they would see it when they reached the open hillside.
+
+Just before they came to the fence somebody spoke. Nimble's mother
+jumped when somebody cried, "Good evening!" But she knew at once that
+it was only Jimmy Rabbit.
+
+"I see you're on time," he said. "I haven't been waiting long."
+
+"Waiting?" Nimble's mother exclaimed. "Waiting for what?"
+
+"For you!" he answered. "I heard you were going down to the garden
+patch to-night; and I'm to be one of the party."
+
+The good lady thought it queer. How did Jimmy Rabbit happen to have
+heard of the excursion? She couldn't imagine. But he was a harmless
+little fellow. Really she didn't mind having him go with her.
+
+"Very well!" she told him. "But remember: You must be quiet!" And she
+was just about to walk up to the fence when she gave a searching look
+all around. "Bless me!" she muttered. "I never saw so many eyes in all
+my life. Who are all these people?"
+
+It was no wonder she asked that question. For no matter where she
+turned, pairs of eyes burned in the darkness.
+
+Strangely enough, nobody answered. Jimmy Rabbit didn't say a word. And
+as for Nimble, he didn't seem to hear--nor understand--anything his
+mother said.
+
+"I repeat," she spoke again, "who are these people? Why have they
+gathered here? The woods aren't afire, are they?" And she lifted her
+nose and sniffed at the air. But she could find no trace of smoke.
+
+Somehow Nimble began to feel ill at ease. He edged away from his mother
+and tried to hide behind Jimmy Rabbit. And that was a ridiculous thing
+to do; because Nimble was ever so much the bigger of the two.
+
+Presently his mother gave him a sharp look. And then he, too, raised
+his muzzle and sniffed.
+
+"I don't smell any smoke," he stammered.
+
+"Do you know why there's such a crowd here?" she asked him sternly.
+
+"I think," he said, "they expect to go to the garden patch with us."
+
+And his mother wondered, then, why she hadn't guessed the secret
+instantly.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+AN UNEXPECTED PARTY
+
+
+Nimble's mother's plans went all awry. She had expected to give her son
+a treat by taking him quietly to Farmer Green's carrot patch, so that
+he might have his first taste of carrots. So it wasn't strange that it
+upset her a bit when she found that there were dozens of other forest
+folk all ready and waiting to go along with them. One extra member of
+the party wouldn't have displeased her, especially when that one was
+Jimmy Rabbit. But she had never gone near the farm buildings with more
+than two others. And she didn't intend to break her rule now.
+
+Besides, it annoyed her above all to know that her son had spread the
+news of the excursion far and wide.
+
+"Did you _invite_ these people?" she asked Nimble in a low voice.
+
+"No! Oh, no!"
+
+"Then what brings them here?" she demanded.
+
+"Their legs, I suppose," he replied.
+
+"Be careful!" she said. "Be very careful!"
+
+Then Nimble began to whine. And that was something he almost never did.
+
+"They said they'd like to come," he told his mother. "And I said maybe
+you wouldn't mind."
+
+"Well, I do mind," she declared firmly. "When I take a child to the
+carrot patch for the first time I don't want company. One of this crowd
+is more than likely to rouse old dog Spot. And we can't have him
+ranging around while we're dining."
+
+"Then tell everybody to go home!" Nimble suggested. "Tell them to go
+'way!"
+
+"No!" said his mother. "That wouldn't be polite."
+
+She was silent for a few moments. And then she explained to Jimmy Rabbit
+and to the owners of the pairs of eyes that still stared at her out of
+the darkness. She explained that on account of an unexpected party she
+wasn't going to the carrot patch that night.
+
+"When are you going?" asked the owner of one pair of specially bright
+eyes.
+
+"Ha!" Nimble's mother exclaimed. "Is that Cuffy Bear speaking?"
+
+"Yessum!" said the same voice.
+
+"I fear," she told him, "I may not be able to go for a long time."
+
+"Never mind!" Cuffy cried. "I can go any night--that is, until I den up
+for the winter."
+
+And every one in the company declared that he hadn't a single engagement
+that would prevent him from visiting the garden whenever Nimble's mother
+should say the word.
+
+"Well," said she, "it won't be to-night, anyhow." And with that she
+turned around and began to walk along the runway again, away from the
+pasture fence.
+
+As Nimble followed her Jimmy Rabbit skipped alongside him and whispered
+in his ear.
+
+"Don't fail to let me know when the time comes!"
+
+But Nimble said never a word. Somehow he suspected that he had made a
+great mistake.
+
+He _knew_ he had, a little later.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE STRANGE LIGHT
+
+
+Weeks went by; and still Nimble's mother said no more about visiting
+Farmer Green's carrot patch. Nimble himself did not dare to mention
+carrots now. It was his own fault that the excursion had been postponed.
+And much as he still wanted a taste of carrots the whole affair was
+something he didn't care to talk about.
+
+Anyhow, it was lucky that he liked water lilies. For his mother took him
+to the lake behind Blue Mountain every night, almost. And there they
+splashed in the shallows and ate all they wanted.
+
+Most of those nights were much alike. But there was one that Nimble
+remembered for many a day afterward.
+
+It was not a dark night; neither was it a light one. It was a
+half-and-half sort of night. There was a moon. But it was far from full.
+And it was not high in the sky. The light from it came slanting down
+upon the lake, throwing the shadows of the trees far out upon the water.
+
+Where those shadows reached out darkly Nimble and his mother stood with
+the water lapping their sleek bodies. And they were eating so busily
+that neither of them noticed a blurred shape that glided slowly nearer
+and nearer to them, without making the slightest sound.
+
+All at once a shaft of dazzling light swept along the shore. Nimble was
+so surprised and puzzled that he stopped eating to stand still and gaze
+at it.
+
+[Illustration: Never Had Nimble Run So Fast Before.
+                                          _Page_ 42]
+
+But only for a moment! Instantly his mother flung her tail upward, so
+that the under side of it gleamed white even in the half light. And
+that--as Nimble knew right well--that was the danger signal.
+
+Almost before Nimble knew what was happening his mother made for the
+shore. As she plunged through the water her tail, still aloft like a
+flag, twitched from side to side.
+
+Nimble needed no urging to follow it. Soon they scrambled, dripping, out
+of the lake to dive headlong into the cover of the overhanging willows.
+
+In those few seconds the light darted swiftly towards them. But it was
+not quite quick enough. Only the ripples told where they had been
+standing. Only the gently waving branches of the willows showed where
+Nimble and his mother had vanished.
+
+A noise like a thunder-clap crashed upon Nimble's ears and rolled and
+tumbled in the distance, tossed from the mountain to the hills across
+the lake, and back again. It frightened Nimble much more than did the
+odd whistle that whined just above his head a moment before the thunder
+peal.
+
+Never had he run so fast before. Never had his mother set such a pace
+for him. Usually, when startled, she stopped after going a short
+distance and looked back to try to get a glimpse of whoever or whatever
+had alarmed her. To be sure, she always stopped in a good place, like
+the edge of Cedar Swamp, where she could duck out of sight if need be.
+
+But this time Nimble's mother ran on and on without pausing.
+
+"Haven't you forgotten something?" her son gasped after a while.
+
+"Forgotten something? What do you mean?" she asked.
+
+"Haven't you forgotten to stop?" Nimble inquired.
+
+A queer look came over her face.
+
+"I declare," she said, "I do believe I'd Have run all night if you
+hadn't reminded me." She fell into a walk. And neither of them said
+another word until they reached the swamp, which was one of his
+mother's favorite hiding places. Then Nimble spoke again.
+
+"I waved my flag too," he said proudly.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+MRS. DEER EXPLAINS
+
+
+For the first time in his life Nimble felt quite grown up. He forgot
+that he had not yet lived a whole summer. He had made a suggestion to
+his mother which she had promptly acted upon. It had never happened
+before. And that was enough to cause him great pleasure.
+
+Then there was something else that made Nimble believe himself to be a
+person of some account: A strange affair had happened at the lake. He
+had seen it all. He had taken part in it himself. Really it was no
+wonder that he began to talk quite importantly.
+
+"It was lucky I was with you," he remarked to his mother as they rested
+amid the tangle of Cedar Swamp.
+
+"It was lucky we weren't any further out in the lake," she exclaimed.
+"If you hadn't been with me no doubt I'd have gone where the water was
+much deeper. And that light would have caught me before I could have
+reached the shore."
+
+What his mother said made Nimble feel bigger than ever. He wasn't quite
+sure what had happened back there, where they had been surprised while
+eating water lilies. But he meant to find out, for he thought it would
+make a good story to tell his friends.
+
+"Would the moon have burnt us if it had hit us?" he inquired.
+
+"What in the world are you talking about?" his mother asked him.
+
+He looked puzzled at her question.
+
+"Wasn't that the moon that lit up the lake along the shore?" he
+demanded.
+
+"Certainly not!" she replied.
+
+"Didn't the moon fall into the water?" he asked.
+
+"No, indeed!" his mother cried. She was astonished at his question.
+
+Nimble was disappointed. He had thought he had a wonderful tale to tell.
+And he couldn't understand yet why everything wasn't as he had supposed.
+
+"I was sure the moon fell into the lake and blew up," he explained.
+"What was that terrible noise we heard if it wasn't the moon bursting
+into pieces?"
+
+His mother didn't laugh. Instead she was quite solemn as she answered
+Nimble's last question.
+
+"That--" she said--"that was a gun that you heard. And the light that
+you saw came from a lantern in a boat."
+
+It was very hard for Nimble to believe what she told him.
+
+"I thought I heard a piece of the moon whistle past my head," he went
+on.
+
+"A bullet!" his mother declared. As she spoke she moved a little
+distance, to a spot where the trees were not so thick. And she raised
+her nose towards the sky. "There!" she said. "There's the moon! It's
+still up there where you've always seen it."
+
+Nimble looked; and at last he knew that his mother had made no mistake.
+But somehow he was more frightened than ever.
+
+"Then--" he faltered--"then there must have been men in the boat--men
+that turned the light upon the shore--and fired the gun!"
+
+"They were men--yes!" said his mother. "And they were lawbreakers, too.
+I hope the game warden will catch them at their tricks."
+
+"What is a game warden?" Nimble asked her.
+
+"He's a man," she answered. "He's a man that looks after all of us
+forest folk and he's the best friend we've got.... Goodness, child!
+Are you never going to stop asking questions?"
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A SPIKE HORN
+
+
+Nimble didn't mind losing his spots, when he grew older. He had
+something else that gave him much more pleasure than they ever had. He
+had a new toy. Or to be exact, he had two new toys. And everywhere he
+went he carried them with him.
+
+He carried them on his head. And he couldn't have left them behind in
+the woods even if he had wanted to--at least not until he had enjoyed
+them for a whole season.
+
+Of course you have already guessed that he had a pair of horns. They
+were not very big. But neither was Nimble, for that matter. So they
+suited him well. A little deer like him would have looked queer wearing
+great branching horns such as his father owned.
+
+Nimble's horns were merely two spikes which stuck up out of the top of
+his head in a pert fashion.
+
+It was a proud day for him when an old deer spoke to him and called him
+"young Spike Horn." About that time the forest folk had begun to speak
+of him as a "yearling." But there was something about "Spike Horn" that
+sounded much more important.
+
+Somehow there was a new crop of Spike Horns that summer--Nimble's second
+summer. And every one of them had been--like him--a little spotted fawn
+the year before.
+
+At first Nimble had thought it fun to use his new horns to jab anybody
+that happened to be with him. One day he even stole up behind his own
+mother and gave her a sharp prod with them.
+
+He never did that again. His mother quickly taught him better. She
+wheeled and struck him smartly with her fore feet.
+
+"There!" she cried. "That's the first time a child of mine has played
+that trick on me.... Let it be the last!"
+
+And it was. Nimble was very careful, after that, to prod only those that
+didn't mind such pranks.
+
+Luckily he soon found that the other Spike Horns liked the same sort of
+fun that he did. They were just as proud of their new horns as he was of
+his. And (sad to say!) there was a good deal of boasting among them.
+Each one declared that his own horns were the longest and strongest.
+
+All the Spike Horns, including Nimble, were forever butting one another
+in play. And they had just discovered a new sport when Nimble met with
+what he feared, for a time, was a terrible accident.
+
+Late in the fall, before the deep snows came, both his horns loosened
+and dropped off his head.
+
+"Oh! oh!" he cried when he saw what had happened. "I'll never be able to
+take part in another mock battle again!" For the Spike Horns had had gay
+times pretending to fight one another in a most savage fashion.
+
+After Nimble lost his horns he carefully avoided all his playmates. He
+didn't want the other Spike Horns to see him. At last, to his great
+dismay, one day he came face to face with one of them. They both tried
+to dodge out of sight. But the other, whose name was Dodger, was not
+quite quick enough. Before he hid behind a thicket Nimble saw that he
+had lost his horns too!
+
+Then Nimble guessed the truth. He knew why it was that he had managed to
+keep out of sight of his friends. Every Spike Horn in the neighborhood
+had lost his horns! And every one of them had been trying to keep out of
+sight.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+AT THE CARROT PATCH
+
+
+During his first summer Nimble never reached Farmer Green's carrot patch
+once. His mother had planned to take him there. But on account of an
+unexpected party she had postponed their visit. And somehow the right
+night for a trip after carrots never seemed to come again.
+
+Now, Nimble had never forgotten what his mother had told him about
+carrots. And he was going after some--so he promised himself--just as
+soon as he was big enough.
+
+When Nimble's second summer rolled around he was big enough and old
+enough to prowl through the woods and fields much as he pleased. He was
+a Spike Horn. And he felt fit to go to the carrot patch without waiting
+for anybody to show him the way.
+
+So one night he stole down the hillside pasture, across the meadow, and
+jumped the fence into Farmer Green's garden.
+
+He saw at once that somebody was there ahead of him. It was Jimmy
+Rabbit. He was very busy with one of Farmer Green's cabbages.
+
+"I've come down to try the carrots," said Nimble.
+
+Jimmy Rabbit made no reply, except to nod his head slightly. He was
+eating so fast that he really couldn't speak just then.
+
+"Are these carrots?" Nimble inquired, as he looked about at the big
+cabbages, which crossed the garden in long rows.
+
+Jimmy Rabbit shook his head.
+
+"They seem to be good," said Nimble, "whatever they are. I'll taste of
+one."
+
+And he did. In fact he tasted of three or four of them, eating their
+centers out neatly.
+
+Meanwhile Jimmy Rabbit was becoming uneasy. And at last he spoke.
+
+"I thought," he said, "you told me you had come down here to try the
+carrots."
+
+"So I did," Nimble answered. "But I don't know where the carrots are."
+
+"Why didn't you say so before?" Jimmy Rabbit asked him. And without
+waiting for a reply he cried, "Follow me! I'll show you." And he hopped
+off briskly, with Nimble after him.
+
+Soon Jimmy Rabbit came to a halt.
+
+"Here it is!" he said. "Here's the carrot patch. Help yourself!" And
+then he hopped away again, back to his supper of cabbages.
+
+[Illustration: Nimble Deer Followed Jimmy Rabbit.
+                                        _Page 57_]
+
+Nimble Deer began to eat the carrot tops. And he was greatly
+disappointed.
+
+"They're not half as good as those great round balls," he muttered. And
+he turned away from the carrots, to go back and join Jimmy Rabbit. But
+he hadn't gone far when he met Jimmy bounding along in a great hurry.
+
+"Old dog Spot!" Jimmy Rabbit gasped as he whisked past Nimble. "He's out
+to-night and he's coming this way."
+
+In one leap Nimble sprang completely around and followed Jimmy Rabbit
+across the meadow, up through the pasture and over the stone wall into
+the woods. There they lost each other.
+
+The next morning Nimble met his mother along the ridge that ran down
+toward Cedar Swamp.
+
+"I went down to the carrot patch last night," he told her. "And I must
+say I don't see why you're so fond of carrots. They're not half as good
+as some big green balls that I found in the garden. I call the carrot
+leaves tough. But the big green balls have very tender leaves."
+
+His mother gave him a queer look.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," she asked him, "that you ate only the _leaves_
+of the carrots?"
+
+"Why, yes!" said Nimble. "I saw nothing else to eat. There was no fruit
+on them."
+
+"Ho!" cried his mother. "You have to dig with your toes to reach the
+carrots themselves. They're down in the ground. And to my mind there's
+nothing any juicier and sweeter and tenderer than nice young carrots,
+eaten by the light of the moon."
+
+Nimble felt very foolish. And then he tossed his head and said lightly,
+"Oh, well! It wouldn't have made any difference if I _had_ dug the
+carrots out of the dirt. They wouldn't have tasted right anyhow. For
+there was no moon last night!"
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+CUFFY AND THE CAVE
+
+
+Nimble did not spend all his spare moments with the other Spike Horns.
+Once in a while he met Cuffy Bear prowling about near the foot of Blue
+Mountain. But Nimble never had a mock battle with Cuffy. Cuffy Bear was
+a famous boxer. And in each of his paws he carried long sharp claws.
+What if Cuffy should forget to pull in those claws sometime, when he
+struck you a playful tap? Ah! That wouldn't be very pleasant! This was
+what Nimble thought about the matter. So he never butted Cuffy Bear nor
+pricked him with his spikes.
+
+On the whole they found each other good company. Cuffy liked to see
+Nimble jump. And Nimble liked to see Cuffy climb trees.
+
+One day, late in the fall, that year when Nimble was a Spike Horn, he
+strayed half way up the side of Blue Mountain. It was seldom that Nimble
+wandered so far up the steep and thickly wooded slopes. But old dog Spot
+was ranging about the lower woods. And for once Nimble did not run for
+Cedar Swamp when he heard the old dog bay. Instead he climbed steadily
+until he was sure that he had shaken Spot off his trail.
+
+Nimble had stopped for a drink at the spring which marked the beginning
+of Broad Brook and there he met Cuffy Bear, who was just turning away
+from the ice-framed pool. "Aren't you a long way from home?" Cuffy asked
+him.
+
+"Yes! But I can get down to my favorite ridge quickly enough, when I
+want to," said Nimble. "Do you live in this neighborhood?"
+
+"I'm not quite sure," Cuffy Bear replied. "I've had my eye on a snug den
+a little further up the mountain. I'm thinking of living there, if it
+suits me.... Wouldn't you like to see it?"
+
+Nimble told Cuffy that he would be delighted. So they started up the
+mountain, after Nimble had had his drink.
+
+Cuffy Bear led the way. And in a short time he stopped in front of a
+cave. A tangle of bushes hid the mouth of it. You'd have passed right
+by it without ever guessing that there was any cave there.
+
+"This is it," Cuffy Bear told Nimble. "Come right in!"
+
+"No, thank you. I'd rather not," said Nimble. "I don't care for caves,
+myself, though this seems to be a good one."
+
+"It's worth seeing," Cuffy Bear urged.
+
+"No, thank you!" Nimble repeated.
+
+"You don't mind if I take a look at it?" Cuffy Bear inquired. "Maybe I
+can make up my mind--about living here--if I look at the cave once
+more."
+
+"Go inside, by all means!" Nimble cried.
+
+"Will you wait here till I come out?" Cuffy asked him.
+
+And Nimble promised that he would wait.
+
+Cuffy Bear yawned as he turned away. And Nimble thought it strange that
+he didn't take the trouble to beg pardon, nor to cover the yawn with a
+paw. Only a very careless--or a very sleepy--person would forget those
+things, Nimble knew.
+
+Well, Cuffy crept inside the cave. And outside Nimble waited. He waited
+and waited, until at last the afternoon light began to fade.
+
+"I wish he'd hurry," Nimble muttered. "We're going to have a storm and I
+don't want to stay up here in it, all night."
+
+Snowflakes were already falling. And Nimble wished he hadn't promised
+that he would wait till Cuffy Bear came out of the cave.
+
+He went to the entrance and called. But he got no answer.
+
+"I hope nothing has happened to him," Nimble said.
+
+But something had.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+CUFFY IS MISSING
+
+
+Far up on the dark mountainside, in the driving snow, Nimble waited in
+front of the cave where Cuffy Bear had vanished. And all the time Nimble
+was growing more uneasy. He feared that Cuffy Bear might be in some sort
+of trouble.
+
+Nimble looked all about for help. But there wasn't a sign of anybody
+stirring, anywhere. All the mountain people seemed to have sought
+shelter from the storm.
+
+At last, however, Peter Mink came sneaking up from the spring. He had
+set out to follow Broad Brook all the way up to its beginning, on a
+hunt for meadow mice. And when he set out to do a thing he always
+finished it, no matter what the weather might be.
+
+"You're just the person I want to see!" Nimble cried. "Will you do me a
+favor?"
+
+Now, Peter Mink never did anybody a favor if he could help it. So he
+promptly said, "No!"
+
+"Won't you go inside this cave for me and see what's happened to Cuffy
+Bear?" Nimble implored him. "He went inside the cave. I promised to wait
+for him here. And he has been gone for hours."
+
+"I won't go into that cave for anybody," Peter Mink declared. "How do I
+know you're not trying to play a trick on me? I don't see any Bear
+tracks in the snow."
+
+"Of course you don't!" Nimble agreed. "All this snow has fallen since
+Cuffy crawled into the cave."
+
+"Why don't you go inside yourself?" Peter Mink inquired with something
+very like a sneer.
+
+"I'm too tall," said Nimble. "Besides, I don't like caves. I keep out of
+them."
+
+"So do I!" Peter Mink declared--though everybody knew that he went
+everywhere--even under the ice along Broad Brook and Swift River.
+
+Poor Nimble didn't know what to do. He felt that he ought to go for
+help, somewhere. But he had promised Cuffy Bear to wait for him.
+
+Then all at once an idea came to him. Why not send Peter Mink for help?
+
+"Won't you please go down to Cedar Swamp and ask Fatty Coon to come up
+here?" Nimble begged Peter.
+
+"I can't," Peter answered. "I must go home now." And everybody knew
+that Peter Mink had no home at all! He was the vagabond of the woods.
+
+Nimble saw then that it was useless to look for help from him. And after
+Peter Mink had gone his surly way Nimble still lingered there. He was
+hungry. So he began to paw the snow away here and there, to uncover the
+ground growths. And just as he was nibbling beside a bush somebody said,
+"Don't step on me!"
+
+It was Mr. Grouse, half buried in the snow.
+
+"I wondered why you were waiting here so long," Mr. Grouse told Nimble.
+"When I heard you talking to that rascal, Peter Mink, I knew the reason.
+But I didn't dare speak while he was about."
+
+"Are you going to spend the night here?" Nimble asked him.
+
+"Yes!" said Mr. Grouse. "I shall be snug and warm after the snow covers
+me."
+
+"Well, your head won't be covered for some time," Nimble told him. "Are
+you willing to keep an eye out for Cuffy Bear? I'm going down to Cedar
+Swamp to get help. And Cuffy Bear might come out of the cave while I'm
+gone."
+
+"I'd be glad to watch," Mr. Grouse replied, "but it wouldn't be any
+use."
+
+"Why not?" Nimble asked him. "Don't you think we'll see Cuffy again?"
+
+"Oh, we'll see him," Mr. Grouse answered. "But it won't be till towards
+spring. For there's no doubt that Cuffy Bear has fallen into his
+winter's sleep."
+
+And then Nimble exclaimed that Cuffy Bear had yawned as he turned away
+to enter the cave. He hadn't even begged pardon, nor covered his mouth
+with a paw.
+
+"No doubt he was very, very sleepy," said Mr. Grouse.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+CUFFY BEAR WAKENS
+
+
+The winter after Nimble lost his spike horns was a mild one. The
+snowfall was light. And Nimble was able to roam up and down Pleasant
+Valley and about Blue Mountain as he pleased.
+
+It happened that a certain bright day in early spring found him far up
+the side of the mountain, near the cave where he had waited for Cuffy
+Bear weeks before. And as that whole queer affair came back to his mind
+Nimble remembered how he had fed upon the green things under the snow.
+
+That thought made him hungry. So he began to paw away the soft heavy
+snow, which wasn't more than a foot deep; and he was enjoying a good
+meal when he heard a sudden _woof_ behind him.
+
+Nimble wheeled instantly. And there, at the mouth of the cave, peering
+over the tangle which screened it, Cuffy Bear stood upon his hind legs,
+rubbing his eyes. Catching sight of Nimble, Cuffy blinked at him.
+
+"Where's Nimble Deer, madam?" Cuffy Bear growled presently.
+
+"I'm right here!" Nimble replied. "But please don't call me 'madam!'"
+
+"You're not Nimble Deer. You're a Doe," Cuffy Bear insisted. "You have
+no horns."
+
+"I'm a Deer," Nimble retorted. "I had horns; but I've shed them."
+
+Cuffy Bear _woofed_ a bit more. He seemed to be somewhat ill-tempered.
+
+"You can't fool me," he grunted. "Nimble Deer's horns were firm upon his
+head when I left him here and stepped inside this cave. He agreed to
+wait for me; and I'm surprised that he broke his promise."
+
+"I am Nimble Deer," Nimble declared again. "You led me to this spot from
+the spring. You told me you wanted to take another look at this cave
+because you were thinking of making it your winter home."
+
+Cuffy Bear eyed Nimble with astonishment. And he shambled up to Nimble
+and sniffed at him.
+
+"It _is_ you!" Cuffy cried at last. "So you _did_ wait for me!"
+
+"No, I didn't," Nimble confessed.
+
+"But here you are!" Cuffy Bear retorted. "You _must_ have been waiting
+for me. And if I've kept you a bit longer than I intended to, I'm sorry.
+I think I fell asleep in that den and had a short nap."
+
+[Illustration: Nimble Deer Tells Cuffy Bear About His Horns.
+                                                   _Page 71_]
+
+"A short nap!" Nimble repeated. "You've been asleep in there all winter!
+It's weeks and weeks since I last saw you. And I'm here now only because
+I happened to wander this way, when I heard old dog Spot baying."
+
+Cuffy Bear was so surprised that he couldn't say another word. His mouth
+fell open. And he gazed blankly at Nimble.
+
+But at last he spoke. "I must apologize to you," he said, "though it was
+really no wonder I called you 'madam.' You have changed a great deal
+since I left you here."
+
+"And you--" Nimble told him--"you have changed too."
+
+"I have?" Cuffy Bear cried. "How's that? How have I changed?"
+
+"You look much hungrier," Nimble explained.
+
+Cuffy Bear laid a paw across his waistcoat.
+
+"I _am_ hungry," he admitted. "And if you're going down the mountain I
+think I'll stroll along with you and see what I can find to eat."
+
+"Very well!" Nimble agreed.
+
+"One moment!" Cuffy Bear said hastily. "Just one moment, please! Wait
+till I go inside my cave! I believe I left my cap in there."
+
+"I'm not going to wait for you," Nimble replied firmly. "For all I know
+you might not come out again till haying time."
+
+And then Nimble trotted off down the mountainside, heading for Cedar
+Swamp. For he didn't think old dog Spot would wander in that direction.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+ANTLERS
+
+
+Although Nimble had lost his horns he managed to go through the winter
+without missing them as much as he had expected. And in time he had
+almost forgotten the pair of spikes that he had worn on his head the
+summer before. Then, one day, he made a great discovery. He found that
+new horns were sprouting to take the place of those that he had lost!
+
+"Now I can have some mock battles again--when my horns get long enough,"
+he thought. And then he stopped short. What if the Spike Horns of the
+year before had no more horns? If they were hornless they certainly
+wouldn't care to take part in any mock battles.
+
+Nimble's fears were soon set at rest. His old playmates soon let him
+know that they were all going to have new horns too.
+
+And then, a little later, Nimble made another great discovery. He was
+looking into a pool one morning when he saw something that gave him huge
+delight. His new horns were not like last year's horns. He beheld,
+mirrored in the water, a handsome pair of Y-shaped antlers, each with
+two points!
+
+"Hurrah!" he cried. "I'll make those Spike Horns feel like hiding
+themselves again."
+
+He had expected to have a pleasant time showing his new antlers to his
+old friends. When he met Dodger the Deer, Nimble called to him: "See
+what I've got! Antlers! Two points!"
+
+"Ho!" said Dodger. "So have I got antlers. And they have two points,
+too."
+
+Nimble had been so interested in his own horns that he hadn't looked at
+Dodger's. And now when he gazed at them he saw that they were like his.
+
+"What about the rest of the Spike Horns?" Nimble asked Dodger. "Have
+they----"
+
+"Yes, they have!" Dodger interrupted. "I tell you, 'two-pointers' are
+common this season."
+
+"So there aren't any more Spike Horns!" said Nimble somewhat sadly.
+
+"Oh, yes! Plenty!" Dodger answered. "But they're an entirely new crop.
+They were fawns last year."
+
+When he heard that bit of news Nimble felt happier. And as soon as he
+parted from Dodger the Deer he went and found some of the new Spike
+Horns and showed them his wonderful two-point antlers.
+
+But somehow they didn't seem at all impressed. They were too much taken
+up with their own spikes to pay any attention to Nimble.
+
+"Anyhow," he said to himself, "we 'two-pointers' can have some good mock
+battles together."
+
+And they did. They had mock battles that became famous all around Blue
+Mountain. And of all the "two-pointers" that lived in that neighborhood,
+Nimble and his friend Dodger the Deer were known as the best
+sham-fighters. They could look fiercer and act angrier than any of their
+young friends. And the way they tore into each other was almost enough
+to frighten you, if you had seen them.
+
+Old Mr. Crow said it was worth flying a mile to watch one of their
+set-tos.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+A MOCK BATTLE
+
+
+When Nimble had three-points on each of his antlers, in his fourth
+summer, he felt that he was at last grown up. He was now a
+"three-pointer." Some of the older bucks had no more points than he.
+Many of them were but "four-pointers." His own father had been a
+"five-pointer." So Nimble hoped, secretly, that he would have five-point
+antlers in another two years.
+
+As soon as his new horns were ready Nimble and his friend Dodger the
+Deer began their mock battles again. And Nimble found them greater fun
+than ever.
+
+Dodger was a spry fellow. He was quick as a flash at dodging. When
+Nimble ran at him with head lowered and horns aimed straight at him
+Dodger could wait until Nimble all but struck him, before leaping aside.
+And then Nimble would go rushing past him.
+
+But Dodger did not always dodge when attacked. Sometimes he stood his
+ground, with his own head lowered in a threatening fashion. And then
+Nimble checked his headlong rush and merely clashed his horns pleasantly
+against Dodger's.
+
+There was something about the sound that sent a thrill through Nimble
+and started his coat to bristling along his backbone with a queer,
+creepy feeling.
+
+One day in the fall Nimble's mother came upon them in the woods when
+they were having one of their sham fights.
+
+"You'd better stop that!" she said to them severely. "Somebody will get
+hurt sooner or later if you're not careful."
+
+Nimble and Dodger paid little heed to her warning, except to stop until
+the good lady had gone on and left them. Then, just as they were on the
+point of renewing their frolic, somebody spoke in a hoarse voice. It was
+old Mr. Crow. He sat on a low branch of a spreading pine, where he had
+been watching the contest for some time without being noticed.
+
+"I'd have my fun if I wanted to," he croaked. "Ladies are too finicky.
+They don't know what a good time is."
+
+Now, Mr. Crow's remarks pleased Nimble. And they pleased Dodger the
+Deer. They didn't know that the old gentleman was a famous trouble
+maker.
+
+So Dodger and Nimble drew a little distance apart, as they always did
+when they were getting ready to clash.
+
+"Go it!" squalled Mr. Crow.
+
+And they started. And Mr. Crow jumped up and down in his excitement.
+
+"Now there's going to be some real fun," he muttered.
+
+But Dodger the Deer leaped aside just in time to avoid being hit. And
+that didn't please Mr. Crow at all.
+
+"You fellows aren't half trying," he cried impatiently. "Anyone would
+think you were a pair of Spike Horns."
+
+Now, all Spike Horns were two whole years younger than Dodger and
+Nimble. So it was no wonder that Mr. Crow's words stung them.
+
+Nimble charged more fiercely than ever. And Dodger stood his ground.
+With his feet planted firmly beneath him he waited for the blow.
+
+There was a crack and a thud.
+
+"Ha!" Mr. Crow squawked. "That's a little more like it. Dodger didn't
+dodge that time, to be sure. But he stood still. And only a Spike Horn
+would stand and _wait_ for the enemy."
+
+Of course Dodger couldn't help wanting to show Mr. Crow that he knew how
+to carry on a mock battle. So the next time Nimble rushed at him Dodger
+did not wait. He jumped to meet Nimble. They struck in the air with a
+frightful crash and fell sprawling upon the ground.
+
+"Ha! That's more like it!" Mr. Crow applauded. "That's the sort of mock
+battle I like to see!"
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+MR. CROW LOOKS ON
+
+
+Nimble and his friend Dodger the Deer picked themselves up off the
+ground where they had fallen after their collision in the air. They did
+not feel any too pleasant. One of Dodger's sharp tines had given Nimble
+a good prick. And one of Nimble's points had stung Dodger like a
+hornet's sting.
+
+If only one of them had been pricked the whole affair might have ended
+differently. For then perhaps only one of them would have lost his
+temper. As they drew apart they were growing more angry every instant.
+And when they wheeled and glared at each other old Mr. Crow, who was
+watching them from his perch in the pine tree, called out: "Don't stop!
+Make it lively, now!"
+
+Nimble gritted his teeth and stamped upon the ground.
+
+"I'll teach you not to prick me!" he muttered.
+
+"I'll make you wish you'd left those new antlers at home!" cried Dodger
+the Deer.
+
+"Don't stop!" old Mr. Crow urged them once more as he teetered on his
+perch. "Let the fun go on!"
+
+He squalled so loudly that his cousin Jasper Jay heard him half a mile
+away and came hurrying up to see what was going on. He arrived just in
+time to see Nimble and Dodger stagger back from another mad charge.
+
+"What's this? A mock battle?" Jasper Jay inquired as he settled down
+beside Mr. Crow.
+
+"No!" Mr. Crow replied in muffled tones. "It is a real one--but they
+don't know it yet."
+
+Next to quarreling himself, old Mr. Crow loved to look on while others
+wrangled. And though he had no taste himself for actual fighting, he
+liked to see his neighbors pummel and peck and buffet and bounce one
+another.
+
+So Mr. Crow enjoyed watching the tilt between Nimble and Dodger the
+Deer. Neither Mr. Crow, nor his rowdy cousin Jasper Jay, had ever seen
+so furious a fracas as that one soon became. Sometimes Nimble and Dodger
+rushed together with such force that it seemed to Mr. Crow their horns
+must break off. Sometimes they reared and struck each other with their
+front hoofs.
+
+At first, whenever he felt a hurt Nimble only fought the harder. When
+Dodger's horns gouged him and his hoofs cut him Nimble butted and thrust
+and struck all the faster. But for every buffet he repaid Dodger, Dodger
+gave him another that was heavier than ever.
+
+It was no wonder that in time Nimble began to feel tired. But he didn't
+let Dodger the Deer know that.
+
+"This was easy to start," Nimble thought, "but it seems hard to stop. I
+wish Dodger would run away."
+
+In the meantime Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay agreed that the battle was
+growing tamer every moment.
+
+"Hustle it up!" Mr. Crow called to Nimble and Dodger, while Jasper Jay
+jeered at them both and told them they were mollycoddles.
+
+"I shouldn't call this a mock battle now," Mr. Crow told them. "It's
+more like a game of tag."
+
+"If only Dodger would run away!" Nimble said under his breath. "I'll
+stop a minute and see if he won't." So he stood still, with his nose all
+but touching the ground.
+
+Dodger the Deer did not run. But he paused and stood exactly as Nimble
+was standing.
+
+So they eyed each other for a while. And neither of them said a word.
+
+"Come!" cried old Mr. Crow. "This will never do. Give us more action!"
+
+And then Dodger the Deer looked up at Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay and spoke.
+
+"If you want more action why don't you two furnish it?" he asked.
+
+"That's a good idea!" Nimble exclaimed. "Let's see a mock battle up in
+the tree!"
+
+[Illustration: "Don't Stop!" Said Old Mr. Crow, to Nimble.
+                                                 _Page 85_]
+
+But Mr. Crow replied hoarsely that he had to meet a friend down the
+valley. "I must be flapping along," he said. And off he went.
+
+Jasper Jay grinned and winked at Nimble and Dodger behind Mr. Crow's
+back. And then with a loud squall--which might have meant almost
+anything--he too flew away.
+
+"That was the liveliest mock battle we ever had," Nimble remarked to his
+friend Dodger.
+
+Dodger agreed with what he said.
+
+Nimble's mother gasped when she saw her son a little later.
+
+"You're a terrible sight!" she told him severely. "What have you been
+doing?"
+
+"I've been having fun with Dodger the Deer," Nimble explained. "But to
+tell the truth, it wasn't as much fun as I had expected."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+WHAT BROWNIE WANTED
+
+
+Nimble Deer had stopped at Brownie Beaver's pond to get a drink. Just as
+he raised his head from the water he spied Brownie a little way off, on
+the bank, gnawing at a box alder tree.
+
+"Good evening!" Nimble called to him.
+
+"Good evening!" Brownie Beaver answered.
+
+"I see you're busy, as usual," Nimble remarked.
+
+"Yes!" Brownie replied. "And what are you doing--if I may ask?"
+
+"Oh! I'm just rambling about," Nimble explained.
+
+"Then you're not doing much of anything," said Brownie Beaver.
+
+Nimble admitted that he wasn't.
+
+"Since you're not working, perhaps you'll be willing to help me,"
+Brownie suggested.
+
+"Certainly!" Nimble cried. He liked Brownie Beaver. Everybody liked
+him--unless it was Timothy Turtle, who had a grudge against the whole
+Beaver tribe.
+
+"Maybe I can make arrangements with you to----" Brownie began.
+
+"Of course you can!" Nimble interrupted.
+
+"That's very kind of you," Brownie said. "I'm sure I'm much obliged to
+you."
+
+"You're quite welcome," Nimble assured him.
+
+"You're sure you won't mind!" Brownie Beaver inquired.
+
+"Not at all! No, indeed! What is it you want me to do for you? Do you
+want me to help you roll a log into the water, when you've finished
+cutting down that tree? I might use my horns for a cant hook, such as
+the lumbermen have."
+
+"No! It's not that--thank you!" Brownie Beaver mumbled. He had not
+stopped working, while he talked. And having some chips in his mouth he
+did not speak any too clearly.
+
+"Maybe you'd like me to walk back and forth along the top of your dam
+and make it firmer," Nimble suggested.
+
+"No, it's not that," Brownie told him. "The dam is firm. It has been
+here a great many years, ever since my great-great-grandfather's
+time.... You've noticed my house, I dare say," he went on.
+
+"I have," Nimble answered. "It's a good one, though the chimney looks a
+bit lopsided, to me. Shall I give it a push and see if I can straighten
+it?"
+
+"No, indeed--thank you!" said Brownie hurriedly. "For mercy's sake,
+don't touch my chimney! I worked a long time to make it. And if I do say
+so, it's the best one in the whole village."
+
+Well, Nimble Deer couldn't guess what it was that Brownie Beaver wanted
+him to do. He couldn't think of any other way in which he might help.
+
+"Then what--" he demanded--"what is it you want?"
+
+"There's something I need for my house," Brownie explained.
+
+"Shingles!" Nimble cried.
+
+"No!" Brownie said, as he shook his head.
+
+"I hope you don't want a pair of antlers to fasten over your chimney
+piece!" Nimble exclaimed. "I shouldn't care to part with my
+antlers--not just at present!"
+
+"No!" Brownie said once more.
+
+"I'm glad of that," Nimble replied. For a moment he had been worried.
+
+And then Brownie Beaver told him what he had in mind: "I need a flag to
+fly over my house."
+
+"That would be fine," Nimble observed. "But I don't see how I could help
+you with that."
+
+"I've heard that you have a flag. I thought perhaps you'd let me have
+it--or borrow it, at least," Brownie Beaver told him.
+
+Nimble Deer looked puzzled.
+
+"I haven't any flag," he said. And then he cried, "Yes! Yes, I have
+one!"
+
+"Ah! I was told you had," said Brownie Beaver.
+
+"Who told you?"
+
+"Old Mr. Crow!" Brownie Beaver said.
+
+"I might have known it," Nimble muttered. "He has played a joke on you.
+It's true that I have a flag; but it's not the kind of flag you want.
+Some people call my tail a flag, on account of the way I wave it in the
+air when I'm startled. Of course you wouldn't care to have my tail on
+the top of your house."
+
+And Brownie Beaver admitted that he shouldn't.
+
+"But I can't help being disappointed," he confessed.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+THE MULEY COW
+
+
+Nimble Deer was a famous jumper. And so was the Muley Cow. In Farmer
+Green's herd there was no other that could match her.
+
+Living as he did in the pasture, Billy Woodchuck had often seen and
+admired the Muley Cow as she jumped the fence in order to get into the
+clover patch, or the cornfield, or the orchard.
+
+And Jimmy Rabbit, who lived in the woods, had come to believe--and even
+boast--that there wasn't anyone that could jump higher than Nimble Deer.
+
+So Billy Woodchuck and Jimmy Rabbit could never agree upon this question
+of the best jumper in Pleasant Valley. And there was only one way to
+settle their difference of opinion. Old Mr. Crow told them that.
+
+"You must have a contest," he declared.
+
+And everybody was willing. The Muley Cow said (when asked) that she
+would be delighted. And when Nimble Deer heard of the plan he ran all
+the way to the back pasture at once. For that was where Mr. Crow said
+the contest ought to take place.
+
+Nimble reached the back pasture just in time to see the Muley Cow arrive
+there. She leaped the fence. And at the same time she grazed the top
+rail.
+
+"Good morning, madam!" Nimble said to the Muley Cow. And while she was
+answering him Nimble jumped the fence into the pasture from which the
+Muley Cow had come; and then he jumped back again, into the back
+pasture. And he didn't touch the fence by so much as a single hair.
+
+Then Billy Woodchuck crawled under the fence and came hurrying up.
+
+"What are you doing?" he asked.
+
+"I'm just stretching my legs a bit," Nimble explained. At that answer
+Billy Woodchuck set up a loud clamor. "It's not fair!" he howled. "I
+expected the Muley Cow to win the contest. But if you're going to
+stretch your legs she'll certainly be beaten unless she stretches hers
+too."
+
+Now, old Mr. Crow was on hand to see the fun. And not being very
+friendly with the Muley Cow he didn't want her to win the contest. So he
+began to squall.
+
+"She mustn't stretch her legs any more than Nimble stretches his," he
+objected in his hoarse croak. "Nimble jumped the fence twice to stretch
+his legs. She has jumped once already. Let her jump the fence once more
+and then they'll be even and the real contest can begin."
+
+"That's fair enough," said Jimmy Rabbit. But Billy Woodchuck began to
+chatter and scold.
+
+"It's a trick--a trick of Mr. Crow's!" he cried. "If the Muley Cow jumps
+once more to stretch her legs she'll be on the wrong side of the fence.
+She won't be in the back pasture then. And how could she have the
+contest with Nimble Deer?"
+
+Old Mr. Crow gave a loud haw-haw. But he still insisted that the Muley
+Cow might have only one more leg-stretching jump, when Jimmy Rabbit
+hurried up to him and said something nobody else could hear. And Mr.
+Crow listened and then nodded his head.
+
+"It's all right," the old gentleman told Billy Woodchuck. "Let the Muley
+Cow stretch her legs all she likes."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE JUMPING CONTEST
+
+
+Having had Mr. Crow's permission, the Muley Cow went on stretching her
+legs as much as she pleased. She jumped the pasture fence; and she
+jumped it back again. And when she seemed about to stop Billy Woodchuck
+whispered to her, "You may as well keep a-stretching them. Keep
+a-jumping! And when the time for the real contest with Nimble Deer comes
+your legs will be stretched so long that you'll beat Nimble without the
+slightest trouble."
+
+So the Muley Cow jumped over the fence and back, over the fence and
+back. And when at last she said she was ready for the contest Billy
+Woodchuck still urged her to stretch her legs a bit more.
+
+By the time he was willing to let her stop the Muley Cow's sides were
+heaving.
+
+Meanwhile Jimmy Rabbit and Billy Woodchuck, with Mr. Crow's help, had
+picked out a clump of young hawthorns for the first test. And now that
+everybody was ready for the contest Nimble Deer cleared the clump
+gracefully, with a foot to spare.
+
+Then came the Muley Cow's turn. She looked worried as she fell into a
+lumbering gallop and ran towards the prickly young trees. And with a
+mighty effort she tried to fling herself over them.
+
+As she rose into the air she gave a bellow of dismay, to fall
+floundering the next instant into the thorny thicket.
+
+Jimmy Rabbit began to hop about in circles. He knew that Nimble had won
+the contest and Jimmy was very happy.
+
+Old Mr. Crow haw-hawed. The Muley Cow had lost the contest and he was
+glad.
+
+Nimble watched the Muley Cow as she struggled amid the hawthorns, trying
+to scramble out of the tangle.
+
+"Can I help you, madam?" he asked.
+
+But she never even thanked him. She was so upset that she neither wanted
+anybody to speak to her nor did she wish to speak to anybody else.
+
+As for Billy Woodchuck, he looked frightfully disappointed. He had
+expected the Muley Cow to win the jumping contest. And there she was,
+beaten at the very first jump!
+
+He stole up to her; and standing on his hind legs, to get as near her as
+he could, he said, "It's a pity you lost! I don't believe you stretched
+your legs enough."
+
+The Muley Cow snorted.
+
+"That's not the reason why," she snapped. "I stretched my legs _too
+much_. I jumped the fence until I was so tired I could scarcely stand.
+It's no wonder that Nimble beat me."
+
+Nimble Deer could see that the Muley Cow was feeling quite glum. After
+she had struggled free of the thorns he went up to her and bowed in his
+most polite manner. "Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked her.
+
+"Yes! Do let down the bars for me!" she gasped. "I want to go home. And
+I couldn't jump that fence again. It would be dangerous for me to try. I
+might fall and break a leg off. And then I'd have a short leg the rest
+of my life."
+
+"You could stretch it," old Mr. Crow suggested.
+
+But the Muley Cow turned her back on him and walked away.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+SOLVING A PROBLEM
+
+
+Jimmy Rabbit was going to give a party. Up and down Pleasant Valley and
+all about Blue Mountain the field and forest people were talking about
+it.
+
+Almost everybody had an invitation. There were only a few that weren't
+asked. Jimmy Rabbit didn't intend to invite Grumpy Weasel because he was
+a rascal. And Timothy Turtle wasn't to be one of the guests because he
+would be sure to grumble at everybody and everything.
+
+And then there was Nimble Deer. Jimmy Rabbit said that Nimble was _too
+big_ to come to his party. And every one told Jimmy Rabbit that it was
+a pity. All the neighbors said so much that Jimmy Rabbit didn't know
+what to do.
+
+"If I don't ask Nimble you won't be pleased," Jimmy complained to Billy
+Woodchuck. "And if I do ask him and he should happen to step on you
+during a dance you wouldn't like that."
+
+"Invite him; but keep him away from the crowd!" Billy Woodchuck
+suggested.
+
+"How can I do that?" Jimmy Rabbit demanded.
+
+"I don't know," Billy replied. "But I am sure you can find a way, if
+anybody can."
+
+Well, after that remark there was nothing Jimmy Rabbit could do except
+to put on his thinking cap. But try as he would, he couldn't hit upon a
+single plan.
+
+Now, Nimble Deer had no idea of all the trouble he was causing Jimmy
+Rabbit. To be sure, he knew that he was not invited to Jimmy Rabbit's
+party. But he was no person to sulk or feel hurt over such a matter.
+
+However, there was one thing that he thought was odd. Wherever he went
+he was sure to come upon Jimmy Rabbit. Sometimes Nimble would hear a
+faint rustle. And when he looked around he would catch a glimpse of
+Jimmy Rabbit ducking out of sight behind a tree. Sometimes Nimble would
+be taking a nap under the shelter of a clump of evergreens. And he would
+wake up suddenly with a strange feeling that somebody was watching him.
+And almost always he would discover Jimmy Rabbit crouching near-by and
+staring at him.
+
+At first, at such times, Nimble only spoke pleasantly to Jimmy Rabbit.
+Still he couldn't help noticing that Jimmy Rabbit always acted queerly.
+He seemed to be absent minded. If Nimble bade him a cheerful good
+morning Jimmy Rabbit was likely to reply with a good evening. If Nimble
+said, "It's a fine day," Jimmy would say, "Yes! It does look like rain."
+
+At last, one day, Jimmy Rabbit made the oddest answer of all. When
+Nimble spied him peering from behind a stump he called, "Hullo! I'm
+glad to see you." To which remark Jimmy Rabbit said, "I hope to see
+you later."
+
+"Now, I wonder--" Nimble mused--"I wonder what he means." And then
+Nimble asked Jimmy Rabbit a question: "Are you feeling well?"
+
+"As well as could be expected!" Jimmy Rabbit told him.
+
+"You don't seem like yourself," said Nimble. "I haven't seen you smile
+for over a week."
+
+Then, strangely enough, Jimmy Rabbit jumped into the air and kicked and
+smiled.
+
+"At last," he cried, "I feel better. I have solved the problem. Will you
+come to my party and help me a week from to-night?"
+
+Nimble Deer thanked him and said that he would.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+AN UNTOLD SECRET
+
+
+All the field and forest people soon knew that at last Jimmy Rabbit had
+invited Nimble Deer to his party. And everybody was pleased--that is,
+everybody except Grumpy Weasel and old Timothy Turtle, who were left out
+in the cold, so to speak. Grumpy Weasel, when he heard the news, said,
+"Humph!" And Timothy Turtle, when he heard it, said, "Ho!" And they both
+declared that they were _glad_ they were not going to the party.
+
+Old Mr. Crow carried the news far and wide. It was he that told Billy
+Woodchuck, in Farmer Green's clover patch. And Billy Woodchuck almost
+choked over a clover top, he was so excited.
+
+"Where's Jimmy Rabbit?" he asked Mr. Crow. "I want to ask him
+something."
+
+"I couldn't say where he is," said Mr. Crow. "I don't think he'd want me
+to tell. But I'll find him for you and I'll ask him your question--if
+you'll tell me what it is." That was Mr. Crow's way. He was so curious.
+
+"Thank you!" said Billy Woodchuck. "I don't want to trouble you, Mr.
+Crow."
+
+And though Mr. Crow tried to learn what the question was, Billy
+Woodchuck wouldn't tell him.
+
+Later Billy was almost sorry he hadn't accepted Mr. Crow's help. For he
+couldn't find Jimmy Rabbit anywhere. And then Billy happened to meet
+Nimble Deer.
+
+"I hear you're going to the party," Billy said to him. "How are you
+going to keep out of the crowd?" That was the question he had wanted to
+ask Jimmy Rabbit.
+
+"Keep out of the crowd!" Nimble exclaimed. "I don't expect to keep out
+of it. The crowd at a party is more than half the fun. Since I'm to help
+Jimmy Rabbit I'll have to be where the people are."
+
+"Oh!" said Billy Woodchuck. He had been a bit worried, for he didn't
+want Nimble Deer to step on him at the party. Even though it might be an
+accident, being stepped on by so big a chap as Nimble would be no joke.
+Everybody knew that Nimble's hoofs were sharp.
+
+But now Billy had learned something that set his fears at rest. Nimble
+Deer was going to _help_ Jimmy at the party.
+
+"Ah!" Billy Woodchuck murmured to himself. "That means that Jimmy
+Rabbit has a plan. And it must be a good one; for his plans are always
+fine."
+
+"What are you going to do to help?" he asked Nimble.
+
+"Jimmy Rabbit didn't tell me," Nimble replied. "Maybe I'm to entertain
+the company by having a mock battle with somebody. How would you like to
+have a mock battle with me?"
+
+"I shouldn't care for it at all!"
+
+"Well, I dare say _somebody_ would enjoy a sham fight," said Nimble. "I
+must ask Jimmy Rabbit who it will be."
+
+So the next time Nimble found Jimmy Rabbit he asked him that very
+question.
+
+But Jimmy Rabbit said there were to be no battles of any kind at his
+party.
+
+"Then how am I going to help you?"
+
+"You're going to use your horns--but not to fight," Jimmy Rabbit
+explained.
+
+And he wouldn't say another word.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE NEW HAT-RACK
+
+
+The night of Jimmy Rabbit's party arrived at last. The time was an hour
+after sunset. The place was Farmer Green's back pasture. And Jimmy
+Rabbit was waiting eagerly. He had told Nimble Deer to come early,
+before the other guests, because Nimble was going to help him.
+
+Jimmy Rabbit hadn't waited long when he heard a muffled thud, followed
+by a swift patter.
+
+"There's Nimble now!" he exclaimed. "He just jumped the stone wall and
+he's coming this way."
+
+Jimmy Rabbit was right. In a few seconds more Nimble Deer stood before
+him.
+
+"Here I am!" Nimble cried. "I've come early and I'm ready to help you."
+
+"Good!" said Jimmy Rabbit. "Step this way, please!" And he hopped over
+to a clump of evergreens. Nimble followed him.
+
+"Now," Jimmy Rabbit went on, "step inside this thicket and let only your
+head and neck stick out!"
+
+"What shall I do with my antlers?" Nimble asked him. "They won't come
+off, because it's the wrong time of year to shed them."
+
+"Oh! I want your antlers to show too," Jimmy Rabbit assured him.
+
+So Nimble did exactly as Jimmy Rabbit had told him.
+
+Then Jimmy sat up a little way off, cocked his head on one side, and
+looked at Nimble. "That's fine!" he declared. "When the moon comes up
+everybody will be able to see you--except what's hidden by the
+evergreens."
+
+"What am I going to do here?" Nimble inquired.
+
+"You're to stand perfectly still," Jimmy explained.
+
+"And what else?"
+
+"Nothing!" Jimmy Rabbit answered. "The other guests will do the rest....
+And now, if you don't mind, I'll leave you here; for I hear somebody
+coming."
+
+He scampered away then. But soon he came hurrying back.
+
+"There's something I forgot to say," he told Nimble hurriedly. "You
+mustn't talk. You mustn't even open your mouth. You mustn't even chew
+your cud."
+
+"I suppose I can wink if I want to," said Nimble Deer.
+
+"No, indeed!" Jimmy Rabbit cried. "That would spoil everything."
+
+"It's going to be hard," Nimble complained, "to keep so still."
+
+"Oh, no!" Jimmy Rabbit assured him. "It will be easy. Just act as if you
+were stuffed!"
+
+"Stuffed!" Nimble exclaimed. "I've never been stuffed. I hope I never
+shall be. And I don't know how to act as if I were."
+
+Jimmy Rabbit didn't even wait to hear what Nimble said, but whisked away
+again.
+
+"Dear me!" Nimble muttered. "I wish I hadn't said I'd come to the party
+and help. For it certainly won't be any fun to stand still in this
+thicket, with only my head and neck sticking out."
+
+However, he had promised to help. So there was nothing to be done except
+to follow Jimmy Rabbit's orders. And at once Nimble could hear Jimmy
+Rabbit welcoming some early guests.
+
+"Come this way and leave your hats and coats!" Jimmy Rabbit was saying.
+And soon he returned with Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon at his heels.
+Jimmy led them straight to the place where Nimble stood.
+
+"Hang your things on my new hat-rack!" Jimmy Rabbit told them as he
+waved a paw toward Nimble's antlers.
+
+And to Nimble's amazement they reached up to do as they were told.
+
+But Nimble's antlers were too high for them.
+
+It was a bad moment for Jimmy Rabbit.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+HOW NIMBLE HELPED
+
+
+Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon had come early to Jimmy Rabbit's party.
+And Jimmy had told them to hang their hats and coats upon his new
+hat-rack--meaning Nimble Deer's antlers. But when they tried to do as
+they were bid they found that the antlers were beyond their reach.
+
+Of course Jimmy Rabbit was most uncomfortable. He coughed and gave
+Nimble an odd look. He even nodded his head at Nimble behind his guests'
+backs, thereby doing his best to give Nimble a hint to lower his head.
+
+But Nimble Deer couldn't imagine what Jimmy Rabbit meant. Hadn't Jimmy
+warned him not to move--not even to open his mouth, or chew his cud, or
+wink? So Nimble stood like a statue.
+
+"I--I see my new hat-rack is too high," Jimmy Rabbit stammered. "Let me
+take your hats and coats and I'll hang them up for you while you go and
+wait for the rest of the company over by the stone wall!"
+
+So Billy Woodchuck and Fatty Coon gave their hats and coats to Jimmy.
+
+"That's a fine Deer's head," Fatty remarked. "It seems to me I've seen
+it before somewhere."
+
+"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy Rabbit answered. He wished his guests would
+move away.
+
+"Those antlers remind me of Nimble Deer's," Billy Woodchuck remarked.
+And he gave Nimble a wink, for he had quickly guessed the secret of the
+hat-rack and how Jimmy Rabbit had planned to have Nimble at his party
+and yet keep him out of the crowd.
+
+"Is this Deer's head stuffed?" Billy Woodchuck asked Jimmy Rabbit.
+
+"Perhaps! Perhaps!" Jimmy muttered. "Move along, please!"
+
+Nimble wanted to return that wink that Billy Woodchuck gave him. But he
+didn't, because Jimmy Rabbit had warned him to keep perfectly still.
+
+As soon as his guests had left them Jimmy whispered to Nimble, "Lower
+your head a bit, for pity's sake!"
+
+Nimble promptly obeyed him. And Jimmy Rabbit hung the hats and coats
+upon Nimble's antlers.
+
+"Now," Jimmy said, "keep your head exactly where it is!"
+
+[Illustration: Nimble Frightened Uncle Jerry Chuck.
+                                         _Page 125_]
+
+"I suppose I may raise it after everybody has come to the party," Nimble
+ventured.
+
+"No! That would never do," Jimmy Rabbit replied firmly. "If anybody
+happened to come back to get a pocket-handkerchief out of his coat he'd
+be sure to notice the difference."
+
+A sigh escaped Nimble Deer.
+
+"My neck will ache before the evening's over," he said. "Couldn't I take
+a short walk in the woods, later, to rest myself?"
+
+"My goodness, no!" Jimmy cried. "You'd be sure to lose some of the hats
+and coats, or tear them on some briars, or get them full of burs."
+
+"How long is the party going to last?" Nimble asked.
+
+"Only till midnight!"
+
+At that Nimble gave a groan.
+
+"S-s-h!" Jimmy Rabbit laid a paw upon his lips. "Keep still! Stuffed
+animals never talk. If you don't look out somebody will hear you."
+
+And then he hurried away to join his guests. He did not want to leave
+them alone too long. He feared they might be saying things to each other
+about his new hat-rack.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+UNCLE JERRY CHUCK
+
+
+Soon Jimmy Rabbit's friends arrived at his party in throngs. And soon
+Nimble Deer's antlers bristled with hats and coats of many kinds and
+colors.
+
+"I must look like a Christmas tree," Nimble thought. "I wish Jimmy
+Rabbit and his friends would come and dance around me so I might see
+the fun."
+
+But they didn't. They stayed down in a little hollow some distance
+away. Nimble could hear their voices. And they seemed to be having
+a delightful time.
+
+As for Nimble, he wasn't having a good time at all. "I'll never help
+at another party!" he promised himself. He couldn't believe that
+midnight--and the end of the party--would ever come.
+
+At last, however, he took heart. For old Uncle Jerry Chuck came hurrying
+up and began taking hats and coats off Nimble's antlers. And Nimble knew
+then that the party must be almost over.
+
+"This is a good hat!" Uncle Jerry muttered to himself. "I'll take it."
+And then he said, "This is a good coat! I'll take it." Then he looked
+closely at another hat. "This is a good one, too!" he remarked. "I might
+lose the other. I'll take this one, too--and this coat here," he added,
+selecting a second coat that pleased him.
+
+Little did Uncle Jerry Chuck dream that the Deer's head was a real, live
+one. And just as the old chap reached for the second coat Nimble Deer
+had to cough. He didn't want to. Hadn't Jimmy Rabbit cautioned him not
+to stir--not to open his mouth?
+
+But the cough came all the same, right in Uncle Jerry Chuck's ear. And
+Uncle Jerry jumped. He dropped both hats and both coats. And then he
+waddled off as fast as he could go and scrambled over the stone wall,
+out of sight. He didn't even wait to get his own rusty coat and tattered
+hat, which he had left lying on the ground.
+
+Uncle Jerry hadn't been gone long when all the company came jostling up
+to Nimble. Everybody--except Nimble--was very merry. Amid a good many
+jokes the company put on their hats and coats, until only Aunt Polly
+Woodchuck's poke bonnet hung from Nimble's horns.
+
+Then--just for fun--Jimmy Rabbit set the bonnet on Nimble's head and
+tied its strings under his chin. And Aunt Polly Woodchuck herself
+laughed hardest of all.
+
+And then all at once something happened. A dog barked. "It's old dog
+Spot!" somebody cried.
+
+Nimble Deer was the first to run. One leap took him out of the evergreen
+thicket in which he had been standing all the evening. Three leaps more
+took him over the stone wall.
+
+After that nobody saw him--nor Aunt Polly Woodchuck's bonnet--again that
+night.
+
+The whole company scattered and vanished like baby grouse surprised in
+the woods. And when old dog Spot reached the clump of evergreens a few
+moments later he found nothing to show that there had been a party
+there--that is, he found nothing except a battered hat and a rusty
+coat lying on the ground.
+
+Spot sniffed at them. "Unless I'm mistaken, Uncle Jerry Chuck has
+forgotten something," he murmured. "No doubt he'll be back here in
+a little while."
+
+So Spot waited and waited there.
+
+But Uncle Jerry Chuck was half a mile away and sound asleep in his
+underground chamber.
+
+And Nimble Deer was a mile away, over in Cedar Swamp, trying to tear
+Aunt Polly's bonnet off his head by rubbing his horns against a young
+cedar.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Nimble Deer, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
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