"Well, what is it? What are you talking to yourself about,
Peter Rabbit?"

Peter looked up with a start to find the soft, beautiful eyes of
Lightfoot the Deer gazing down at him over the top of a little
hemlock tree.

"It's awful," declared Peter. "It's worse than unfair.
It doesn't give them any chance at all."

"I suppose it must be so if you say so," replied Lightfoot,
"but you might tell me what all this awfulness is about."

Peter grinned. Then he began at the beginning and told Lightfoot
all about Mr. and Mrs. Quack and the many dangers they must face
on their long journey to the far-away Southland and back again in
the spring, all because of the heartless hunters with terrible
guns. Lightfoot listened and his great soft eyes were filled with
pity for the Quack family.

"I hope they will get through all right," said he, "and I hope
they will get back in the spring. It is bad enough to be hunted
by men at one time of the year, as no one knows better than I do,
but to be hunted in the spring as well as in the fall is more
than twice as bad. Men are strange creatures. I do not
understand them at all. None of the people of the Green Forest
would think of doing such terrible things. I suppose it is quite
right to hunt others in order to get enough to eat, though I am
thankful to say that I never have had to do that, but to hunt