Page:Bambi A Life in the Woods (1928).pdf/189

Bambi’s mind. Not go to Faline? How could the mean old stag ask that? “I’ll simply run off,” Bambi thought. And he looked quickly at the old stag. But the deep look that met him in the old stag’s eyes held him fast. He quivered with impatience but he did not run away.

“She’s calling me,” he said in explanation. He said it in a tone which clearly bleated, “Don’t keep me talking here.”

“No,” said the old stag, “she isn’t calling.”

The call came once again, thin as a bird’s twittering, “Come!”

“Listen,” Bambi cried excitedly, “there it is again.”

“I hear it,” said the old stag, nodding.

“Well, good-by,” Bambi flung back hurriedly.

“Stop!” the old stag commanded.

“What do you want?” cried Bambi, beside himself with impatience. “Let me go. I have no time. Please, Faline is calling. . . . You ought to see that. . . .”

“I tell you,” the old stag said, “that it isn’t she.”

Bambi was desperate. “But,” he said, “I know her voice.”