Antlers

: The Tale Of Nimble Deer

Although Nimble had lost his horns he managed to go through the winter

without missing them as much as he had expected. And in time he had

almost forgotten the pair of spikes that he had worn on his head the

summer before. Then, one day, he made a great discovery. He found that

new horns were sprouting to take the place of those that he had lost!



"Now I can have some mock battles again--when my horns get long enough,"
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he thought. And then he stopped short. What if the Spike Horns of the

year before had no more horns? If they were hornless they certainly

wouldn't care to take part in any mock battles.



Nimble's fears were soon set at rest. His old playmates soon let him

know that they were all going to have new horns too.



And then, a little later, Nimble made another great discovery. He was

looking into a pool one morning when he saw something that gave him huge

delight. His new horns were not like last year's horns. He beheld,

mirrored in the water, a handsome pair of Y-shaped antlers, each with

two points!



"Hurrah!" he cried. "I'll make those Spike Horns feel like hiding

themselves again."



He had expected to have a pleasant time showing his new antlers to his

old friends. When he met Dodger the Deer, Nimble called to him: "See

what I've got! Antlers! Two points!"



"Ho!" said Dodger. "So have I got antlers. And they have two points,

too."



Nimble had been so interested in his own horns that he hadn't looked at

Dodger's. And now when he gazed at them he saw that they were like his.



"What about the rest of the Spike Horns?" Nimble asked Dodger. "Have

they----"



"Yes, they have!" Dodger interrupted. "I tell you, 'two-pointers' are

common this season."



"So there aren't any more Spike Horns!" said Nimble somewhat sadly.



"Oh, yes! Plenty!" Dodger answered. "But they're an entirely new crop.

They were fawns last year."



When he heard that bit of news Nimble felt happier. And as soon as he

parted from Dodger the Deer he went and found some of the new Spike

Horns and showed them his wonderful two-point antlers.



But somehow they didn't seem at all impressed. They were too much taken

up with their own spikes to pay any attention to Nimble.



"Anyhow," he said to himself, "we 'two-pointers' can have some good mock

battles together."



And they did. They had mock battles that became famous all around Blue

Mountain. And of all the "two-pointers" that lived in that neighborhood,

Nimble and his friend Dodger the Deer were known as the best

sham-fighters. They could look fiercer and act angrier than any of their

young friends. And the way they tore into each other was almost enough

to frighten you, if you had seen them.



Old Mr. Crow said it was worth flying a mile to watch one of their

set-tos.



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