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 been driven into
the tree just above the bucket. And as Cuffy
stood there on his hind legs, reaching up as high as
he could, he saw a tiny drop fall from the spout and
go splash! into the bucket. Then, as he watched,
another drop fell; and another and another and another.
Cuffy wondered where they came from. It must be—he
thought—that there was a spring inside
that tree. Yes! he was sure of it, for the bucket
was half full of water. He felt thirsty, for he
had not had a drink since lunch-time. And so
Cuffy stuck his head into the pail and took a good,
big swallow.
The next instant he squealed with joy. It was
the nicest water he had ever tasted in all his life,
for it was quite sweet—just as if somebody
had left a heap of honey in the bottom of the bucket.
But when Cuffy licked the end of the spout with his
little red tongue he found that that tasted sweet
too. Yes! it certainly was a wonderful spring.
Cuffy was very glad that he had found it. And
he decided that he would drink all he could of the
delicious, sweet water and leave the pail hanging
there. Then he could come back the next day and
there would be more of that wonderful water all ready
and waiting for him to drink up.
IV
CUFFY LEARNS SOMETHING
After leaving the wonderful spring Cuffy Bear was
so long getting home that he decided he would not
say anything to his father and mother about what he
had found. You see—he was afraid they
would tell him not to go so far away from home again.
But Cuffy had not been long in the snug little house
before he had a terrible stomach-ache. He stood
the pain as long as he could without saying anything.
But he simply had to hang onto his little fat
stomach with both his front paws. And at last
he began to cry softly. Then Mrs. Bear asked
him what he had been doing; and before Cuffy knew
it he had told all about finding the delicious, sweet
water.
