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