Lightfoot knew now that this hunter had patience and perseverance and had not yet given up hope of getting near enough to shoot Lightfoot.  He moved forward slowly, setting each foot down with the greatest care, so as not to snap a stick or rustle the leaves.  He was watching sharply ahead, ready to shoot should he catch a glimpse of Lightfoot within range.

Right along through the hollow at the foot of the little hill below Lightfoot the hunter passed.  He was no longer studying the ground for Lightfoot’s tracks, because the ground was so hard and dry down there that Lightfoot had left no tracks.  He was simply hunting in the direction from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing because he knew that Lightfoot had gone in that direction, and he also knew that if Lightfoot were still ahead of him, his scent could not be carried to Lightfoot.  He was doing what is called “hunting up-wind.”

Lightfoot kept perfectly still and watched the hunter disappear among the trees.  Then he silently got to his feet, shook himself lightly, and noiselessly stole away over the hilltop towards another part of the Green Forest.  He felt sure that that hunter would not find him again that day.

CHAPTER XII:  Lightfoot Visits Paddy The Beaver

Deep in the Green Forest is the pond where lives Paddy the Beaver.  It is Paddy’s own pond, for he made it himself.  He made it by building a dam across the Laughing Brook.  When Lightfoot bounded away through the Green Forest, after watching the hunter pass through the hollow below him, he remembered Paddy’s pond.  “That’s where I’ll go,” thought Lightfoot.  “It is such a lonesome part of the Green Forest that I do not believe that hunter will come there.  I’ll just run over and make Paddy a friendly call.”

So Lightfoot bounded along deeper and deeper into the Green Forest.  Presently through the trees he caught the gleam of water.  It was Paddy’s pond.  Lightfoot approached it cautiously.  He felt sure he was rid of the hunter who had followed him so far that day, but he knew that there might be other hunters in the Green Forest.  He knew that he couldn’t afford to be careless for even one little minute.  Lightfoot had lived long enough to know that most of the sad things and dreadful things that happen in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows are due to carelessness.  No one who is hunted, be he big or little, can afford ever to be careless.

Now Lightfoot had known of hunters hiding near water, hoping to shoot him when he came to drink.  That always seemed to Lightfoot a dreadful thing, an unfair thing.  But hunters had done it before and they might do it again.  So Lightfoot was careful to approach Paddy’s pond upwind.  That is, he approached the side of the pond from which the Merry Little Breezes were blowing toward him, and all the time he kept his nose working.  He knew that if any hunters were hidden there, the Merry Little Breezes would bring him their scent and thus warn him.