SAMMY JAY WORRIES
It isn't often Sammy Jay worries about anybody but himself. Truth to
tell, he doesn't worry about himself very often. You see, Sammy is
smart, and he knows he is smart. Under that pointed cap of his are some
of the cleverest wits in all the Green Forest. Sammy seldom worries
about himself because he feels quite able to take care of himself.
But Sammy Jay was worrying now. He was worrying about Lightfoot the
Deer. Yes, Sir, Sammy Jay was worrying about Lightfoot the Deer. For
two days he had been unable to find Lightfoot or any trace of Lightfoot.
But he did find plenty of hunters with terrible guns. It seemed to him
that they were everywhere in the Green Forest. Sammy began to suspect
that one of them must have succeeded in killing Lightfoot the Deer.
Sammy knew all of Lightfoot's hiding-places. He visited every one of
them. Lightfoot wasn't to be found, and no one whom Sammy met had seen
Lightfoot for two days.
Sammy felt badly. You see, he was very fond of Lightfoot. You remember
it was Sammy who warned Lightfoot of the coming of the hunter on the
morning when the dreadful hunting season began. Ever since the hunting
season had opened, Sammy had done his best to make trouble for the
hunters. Whenever he had found one of them he had screamed at the top of
his voice to warn every one within hearing just where that hunter was.
Once a hunter had lost his temper and shot at Sammy, but Sammy had
suspected that something of the kind might happen, and he had taken care
to keep just out of reach.
Sammy had known all about the chasing of Lightfoot by the hounds.
Everybody in the Green Forest had known about it. You see, everybody had
heard the voices of those hounds. Once, Lightfoot had passed right
under the tree in which Sammy was sitting, and a few moments later the
two hounds had passed with their noses to the ground as they followed
Lightfoot's trail. That was the last Sammy had seen of Lightfoot. He had
been able to save Lightfoot from the hunters, but he couldn't save him
from the hounds.
The more Sammy thought things over, the more he worried. "I am afraid
those hounds drove him out where a hunter could get a shot and kill him,
or else that they tired him out and killed him themselves," thought
Sammy. "If he were alive, somebody certainly would have seen him and
nobody has, since the day those hounds chased him. I declare, I have
quite lost my appetite worrying about him. If Lightfoot is dead, and I
am almost sure he is, the Green Forest will never seem the same."