`` He must be a coward . '' Now the truth is , the stranger was not a coward . He was ready and willing to fight if he had to , but if he could avoid fighting he meant to . You see , big as he was , he was n't quite so big as Lightfoot , and he knew it . He had seen Lightfoot 's big footprints , and from their size he knew that Lightfoot must be bigger and heavier than he . Then , too , he knew that he really had no right to be there in the Green Forest . That was Lightfoot 's home and so he was an intruder . He knew that Lightfoot would feel this way about it and that this would make him fight all the harder . So the big stranger wanted to avoid a fight if possible . But he wanted still more to find that beautiful young visitor with the dainty feet for whom Lightfoot had been looking . He wanted to find her just as Lightfoot wanted to find her , and he hoped that if he did find her , he could take her away with him back to the Great Mountain . If he had to , he would fight for her , but until he had to he would keep out of the fight . So he dodged Lightfoot and at the same time looked for the beautiful stranger . All this Sammy Jay guessed , and after a while he grew tired of following Lightfoot for nothing . `` I 'll have to take a hand in this thing myself , '' muttered Sammy . `` At this rate , Lightfoot never will find that big stranger ! '' So Sammy stopped following Lightfoot and began to search through the Green Forest for the big stranger . It did n't take very long to find him . He was over near the pond of Paddy the Beaver . As soon as he saw him , Sammy began to scream at the top of his lungs .
At once he heard the sound of snapping twigs at the top of a little ridge back of Paddy 's pond and knew that XXXXX had heard and understood .
Forest Jay Lightfoot Mountain Paddy Sammy footprints pond right stranger