tle round, prickly ball and gave it one good,
hard cuff.

The next instant Cuffy gave a howl of pain. He was so angry that he
struck the porcupine once more with his other front-paw.

Again Cuffy howled! Now both his front-paws were full of quills. They
looked just like pincushions. And as Cuffy saw what had happened he
began to cry. He wanted his mother.

So home he started. All the way he had to walk on his hind legs, because
it hurt him terribly whenever he put one of his front-paws on the
ground.

Cuffy wept very hard when Mrs. Bear pulled out the quills. And his paws
were so sore that he could not feed himself. His mother had to put into
his mouth bits of the frozen turnips that his father found in Farmer
Green's field. And though afterward Cuffy did many things that he ought
not to have done, he never, never touched a porcupine again.

III

CUFFY AND THE WONDERFUL SPRING

The pricks of the porcupine's quills made Cuffy Bear's paws so sore that
it was several days before he could run about again. And during all that
time Cuffy was a very good little bear. He did not cuff his sister
Silkie once. You see, he knew it would hurt his sore paws if he did.

The days were still fine. Cuffy loved to feel the bright sunshine upon
his black coat. It warmed him through and through and he did not care at
all if his feet _did_ get wet in the melting snow.

At last one afternoon when his paws were quite well again Cuffy strayed
some distance down the side of Blue Mountain, He was alone, because
Silkie was asleep. You know, she was younger than Cuffy and still had to
take naps. Cuffy had slid and tumbled down the mountainside until he was
further from home than he knew. It did seem good to be able to put his
paws upon the ground again without whimpering with pain. And coming to a
short, steep place, Cuffy felt so glad that he actually turned a
somersault and landed in a heap at the foot of the bank. He sat there
for a moment, brushing the soft snow out of his face, when a flash of
light dazzled his eyes. It came from a tree right in front of him. And
Cuffy at once jumped up and ran to see what it was. He found that some
one had fastened a shiny, new tin bucket to the trunk of the tree.

Cuffy felt that he _must_ have that bucket to play with. He knew that he
could have heaps of fun rolling it about on the ground. And he was just
going to knock it off the hook that held it when he noticed that a small
spout had