through the Green Forest to hunt elsewhere.



CHAPTER XVIII: The Hunter Loses His Temper

The hunter, hidden near the pond of Paddy the Beaver, chuckled
silently. That is to say, he laughed without making any
sound. The hunter thought the warning of Mr. and Mrs. Quack by
Sammy Jay was a great joke on Reddy. To tell the truth, he was
very much pleased. As you know, he wanted those Ducks himself.
He suspected that they would stay in that little pond for some days,
and he planned to return there and shoot them after he had got
Lightfoot the Deer. He wanted to get Lightfoot first, and he knew
that to shoot at anything else might spoil his chance of getting
a shot at Lightfoot.

"Sammy Jay did me a good turn," thought the hunter, "although he
doesn't know it. Reddy Fox certainly would have caught one of
those Ducks had Sammy not come along just when he did. It would
have been a shame to have had one of them caught by that Fox.
I mean to get one, and I hope both of them, myself."

Now when you come to think of it, it would have been a far
greater shame for the hunter to have killed Mr. and Mrs. Quack
than for Reddy Fox to have done so. Reddy was hunting them
because he was hungry. The hunter would have shot them for
sport. He didn't need them. He had plenty of other food.
Reddy Fox doesn't kill just for the pleasure of killing.