Please do . '' Lightfoot could n't resist that `` please . '' `` Those rags are what is left of a kind of covering which protected the antlers while they were growing , as I told you before , '' said he . `` Very soon after my old ones dropped off the new ones began to grow . They were not hard , not at all like they are now . They were soft and very tender , and the blood ran through them just as it does through our bodies . They were covered with a sort of skin with hairs on it like thin fur . The ends were not sharply pointed they now are , but were big and rounded , like knobs . They were not like antlers at all , and they made my head hot and were very uncomfortable . That is why I hid away . They grew very fast , so fast that every day I could see by looking at my reflection in water that they were a little longer . It seemed to me sometimes as if all my strength went into those new antlers . And I had to be very careful not to hit them against anything . In the first place it would have hurt , and in the second place it might have spoiled the shape of them . `` When they had grown to the length you now see , they began to shrink and grow hard . The knobs on the ends shrank until they became pointed . As soon as they stopped growing the blood stopped flowing up in them , and as they became hard they were no longer tender . The skin which had covered them grew dry and split , and I rubbed it off on trees and bushes . The little rags you see are what is left , but I will soon be rid of those . Then I shall be ready to fight if need be and will fear no one save man , and will fear him only when he has a terrible gun with him . ''
Lightfoot tossed his head proudly and rattled his wonderful XXXXX against the nearest tree .
Lightfoot antlers anything day ends first left second strength trees