WOODMYTH & FABLE C/ 



ver might; I have never tried that, and I 

 do not remember that any Croesus ever 

 w^ent about riddling innumerable bushes 

 w^ith costly projectiles in hopes of secur- 

 mg the Great Stag. I doubt, too, that 

 he w^ould have succeeded ; indeed, I feel 

 sure that no hunter armed with such in- 

 fallible missiles will ever meet with St. 

 Hubert's Hart. He is too sagacious to 

 allow it, or, if he did, he would not long 

 remain in sight ; he would simply show 

 himself and snort and stamp — 1 know it, 

 for I have watched him — then fade 

 away, like the Cat in Wonderland, the 

 scomful gaze being the last thmg to van- 

 ish into thin air. He leaves a good 

 track for a little while, but this, too, fades 

 away completely. Once I followed it 

 for miles, but it disappeared at last in a 

 thickly grown bottom-land, and no doubt 

 the phantom buck himself had vanished 



