Or else it may happen that the deer is so frightened that he loses his head, as it were, and goes just any way--and by bad luck chooses the wrong way, and falls into the tiger's jaws. But I must tell you that, although the tiger tries very hard to eat the deer, _the deer tries still harder not to be eaten!_ Why? Because if the tiger does not catch the deer for to-day's dinner, he can still catch some other animal for tomorrow's breakfast, even if he goes hungry to-night. But if the deer once gets eaten, there is no to-morrow for, him at all! The tiger is only trying _to get a meal_, but the deer is trying _to save his life_. That is why the deer nearly always gets away from the tiger--because he is trying harder than the tiger. So the tiger does not get deer to eat much oftener than most children get roast turkey. The tiger lives mostly on pork, for the wild pigs of the jungle are such careless animals, as I have told you before. Now and again the tiger gets mutton also, for the wild sheep are silly creatures, like other kinds of sheep. In the same way the tiger sometimes catches a wild goat. The tiger would really get deer to eat a little oftener than he actually does if it were not that the deer has two other gifts by which he can escape from the tiger at the last minute. Those two gifts are his _quickness in getting started_, and his _speed in running_. So, even if the deer makes a mistake and runs toward the tiger, he can still escape from the tiger if he finds out his mistake in time. For, as you saw at the midnight pool, the deer may be drinking quietly, when he hears or smells a tiger. Then the deer can leap at once and get away, before the tiger can leap. Or it may happen that the deer is trying to escape from a tiger and has run to within twenty yards of the tiger, when he finds out his mistake. Then the deer can turn _at once_ and leap sideways to get out of the tiger's reach. The deer is so quick that he can turn aside without stopping, and keep on running. Then after that, once he has turned away from the tiger, the tiger can never catch him. For the deer can run ever so much faster than the tiger. In fact, the deer or the antelope is the fastest animal in the world, except one other. About that other animal I shall tell you some wonderful things in the next book. But among all animals I have told you about in this book the deer is the fastest. "But how do people know that the deer can run faster than other animals?" you may ask. "Has anyone had a race between different animals?"