season for Lightfoot the Deer. There came a day when the law
protected all Deer, -- a day when the hunters could no longer go
searching for Lightfoot.

Usually there was great rejoicing among the little people of the
Green Forest and the Green Meadows when the hunting season ended
and they knew that Lightfoot would be in no more danger until the
next hunting season. But this year there was no rejoicing. You
see, no one could find Lightfoot. The last seen of him was when
he was running for his life with two hounds baying on his trail
and the Green Forest filled with hunters watching for a chance to
shoot him.

Sammy Jay had hunted everywhere through the Green Forest. Blacky
the Crow, whose eyes are quite as sharp as those of Sammy Jay,
had joined in the search. They had found no trace of Lightfoot.
Paddy the Beaver said that for three days Lightfoot
had not visited his pond for a drink. Billy Mink, who travels up
and down the Laughing Brook, had looked for Lightfoot's
footprints in the soft earth along the banks and had found only
old ones. Jumper the Hare had visited Lightfoot's favorite eating
places at night, but Lightfoot had not been in any of them.

"I tell you what it is," said Sammy Jay to Bobby Coon, "something
has happened to Lightfoot. Either those hounds caught him and
killed him, or he was shot by one of those hunters. The Green
Forest will never be the same without him. I don't think I shall
want to come over here very much. There isn't one of all the
other people who live in the Green Forest who would be missed as
Lightfoot will be."