CHAPTER XL: Happy Days In The Green Forest

These were happy days in the Green Forest. At least, they were
happy for Lightfoot the Deer. They were the happiest days he had
ever known. You see, he had won beautiful, slender, young Miss
Daintyfoot, and now she was no longer Miss Daintyfoot but
Mrs. Lightfoot. Lightfoot was sure that there was no one anywhere
so beautiful as she, and Mrs. Lightfoot knew that there was no
one so handsome and brave as he.

Wherever Lightfoot went, Mrs. Lightfoot went. He showed her all
his favorite hiding-places. He led her to his favorite
eating-places. She did not tell him that she was already
acquainted with every one of them, that she knew the Green Forest
quite as well as he did. If he had stopped to think how day after
day she had managed to keep out of his sight while he hunted for
her, he would have realized that there was little he could show
her which she did not already know. But he didn't stop to think
and proudly led her from place to place. And Mrs. Lightfoot wisely
expressed delight with all she saw quite as if it were all new.

Of course, all the little people of the Green Forest hurried to
pay their respects to Mrs. Lightfoot and to tell Lightfoot how
glad they felt for him. And they really did feel glad. You see,
they all loved Lightfoot and they knew that now he would be
happier than ever, and that there would be no danger of his
leaving the Green Forest because of loneliness. The Green Forest
would not be the same at all without Lightfoot the Deer.