Cuffy roared with the pain. Yes—he
gave such a great roar that he couldn’t hear
the bees at all. But the bees didn’t seem
to mind that. They weren’t afraid.
They just kept on stinging. And they went for
Cuffy’s eyes, too. And some of them even
crawled down his ears. That was the worst of
all.
Just for a few moments Cuffy slapped at the bees.
And he tried to brush them off his face. But
as fast as he swept them away from one spot they settled
on another. And Cuffy felt exactly as if somebody
was sticking him with pins and needles. He forgot
all about taking any of the honey to eat. He
only wanted to get away from those bees. So he
began to slide down the tree.
But Cuffy soon saw that the bees intended to go right
along with him. They seemed to have no idea at
all of staying at home, and as he scrambled down the
tree Cuffy thought very quickly. He hadn’t
put a paw on the ground before he knew what he was
going to do. Cuffy Bear ran straight for the
brook that goes tumbling down Blue Mountain to meet
Swift River.
CUFFY BEAR GOES SWIMMING
As Cuffy Bear tore through the forest, with the bees
clustering all about his head, he thought he never
would reach the brook. He was going straight
for the deep pool, which he had often visited in order
to watch the speckled trout darting about in the clear
water.
Now and then Cuffy paused in his mad rush, to bury
his face in the thick blanket of dead leaves that
covered the ground. But just as soon as he raised
his head the bees would settle on his face again.
And Cuffy would rush off once more as fast as he could
go.
At last he came to the brook. And he leaped right
off the big boulder that hung high over the pool and
landed ker-splash! right in the middle of it.
How the water did fly in all directions! And Cuffy
went right down out of sight.
Of course, the bees wouldn’t go down into the
water too. They knew they’d be drowned
if they did. So they lingered in a swarm above
the water. They hovered there in the air and
waited. And when, after a moment, Cuffy’s
head came up out of the pool, they swooped down and
began to sting him again.
Cuffy promptly ducked his head. And he swam under
water to the further side of the pool and came up
once more. To his surprise the bees were right
there waiting for him. And he ducked under again,
and swam to the opposite side, near the big boulder.
And once more, when he came up to breathe, he found
the buzzing bees all ready to pounce upon his nose.
So poor Cuffy had to keep pulling his head down into
the pool. He would keep it there just as long
as he could hold his breath; and then he would simply
have to stick his nose out of the water in order
to draw some fresh air into his lungs.
It was not long before Cuffy became very tired from
so much swimming. So he found a shallow place
where he could stand on the bottom of the brook, with
just enough water to cover him, and where he could
poke his nose out whenever he had to. And just
as often as his little black nose came up above the
surface of the pool the bees lighted on it and stung
Cuffy again.
