CHAPTER X : Lightfoot 's Clever Trick Lightfoot the Deer is smart . Yes , Sir , Lightfoot the Deer is smart . He has to be , especially in the hunting season , to save his life . If he were not smart he would have been killed long ago . He never makes the foolish mistake of thinking that other people are not smart . He knew that the hunter who had started out to follow him early that morning was not one to be easily discouraged or to be fooled by simple tricks . He had a very great respect for the smartness of that hunter . He knew that he could n't afford to be careless for one little minute . The certainty of danger is sometimes easier to bear than the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not there really is any danger . Lightfoot felt that if he could know just where the hunter was , he himself would know better what to do . The hunter might have become discouraged and given up following him . In that case he could rest and stop worrying . It would be better to know that he was being followed than not to know . But how was he to find out ? Lightfoot kept turning this over and over in his mind as he traveled through the Green Forest . Then an idea came to him . `` I know what I 'll do . I know just what I 'll do , '' said Lightfoot to himself . `` I 'll find out whether or not that hunter is still following me and I 'll get a little rest . Goodness knows , I need a rest . ''
XXXXX bounded away swiftly and ran for some distance , then he turned and quickly , but very , very quietly , returned in the direction from which he had just come but a little to one side of his old trail .
Deer Forest Goodness Lightfoot Sir case minute morning smartness tricks