not half as good
as some big green balls that I found in the garden. I call the carrot
leaves tough. But the big green balls have very tender leaves."

His mother gave him a queer look.

"Do you mean to tell me," she asked him, "that you ate only the _leaves_
of the carrots?"

"Why, yes!" said Nimble. "I saw nothing else to eat. There was no fruit
on them."

"Ho!" cried his mother. "You have to dig with your toes to reach the
carrots themselves. They're down in the ground. And to my mind there's
nothing any juicier and sweeter and tenderer than nice young carrots,
eaten by the light of the moon."

Nimble felt very foolish. And then he tossed his head and said lightly,
"Oh, well! It wouldn't have made any difference if I _had_ dug the
carrots out of the dirt. They wouldn't have tasted right anyhow. For
there was no moon last night!"

XI

CUFFY AND THE CAVE

Nimble did not spend all his spare moments with the other Spike Horns.
Once in a while he met Cuffy Bear prowling about near the foot of Blue
Mountain. But Nimble never had a mock battle with Cuffy. Cuffy Bear was
a famous boxer. And in each of his paws he carried long sharp claws.
What if Cuffy should forget to pull in those claws sometime, when he
struck you a playful tap? Ah! That wouldn't be very pleasant! This was
what Nimble thought about the matter. So he never butted Cuffy Bear nor
pricked him with his spikes.

On the whole they found each other good company. Cuffy liked to see
Nimble jump. And Nimble liked to see Cuffy climb trees.

One day, late in the fall, that year when Nimble was a Spike Horn, he
strayed half way up the side of Blue Mountain. It was seldom that Nimble
wandered so far up the steep and thickly wooded slopes. But old dog Spot
was ranging about the lower woods. And for once Nimble did not run for
Cedar Swamp when he heard the old dog bay. Instead he climbed steadily
until he was sure that he had shaken Spot off his trail.

Nimble had stopped for a drink at the spring which marked the beginning
of Broad Brook and there he met Cuffy Bear, who was just turning away
from the ice-framed pool. "Aren't you a long way from home?" Cuffy asked
him.

"Yes! But I can get down to my favorite ridge quickly enough, when I
want to," said Nimble. "Do you live in this neighborhood?"

"I'm not quite sure," Cuffy Bear replied. "I've had my eye on a snug den
a little further up the mountain. I'm thinking of living there, if it
suits me