Sleepy-Time Tales

THE TALE OF CUFFY BEAR

by

ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY

Illustrated by Harry L. Smith

New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers

1915







[Illustration: Cuffy Gave It One Good, Hard Cuff]



+-------------------------------+
|                               |
|      _SLEEPY-TIME TALES_      |
|              by               |
|      ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY      |
|             ----              |
|  THE TALE OF CUFFY BEAR       |
|  THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL  |
|  THE TALE OF TOMMY FOX        |
|  THE TALE OF FATTY COON       |
|  THE TALE OF BILLY WOODCHUCK  |
|  THE TALE OF JIMMY RABBIT     |
|  THE TALE OF PETER MINK       |
|  THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK   |
|  THE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVER   |
|  THE TALE OF PADDY MUSKRAT    |
|                               |
+-------------------------------+





CONTENTS


CHAPTER

I  CUFFY WAKES UP

II  CUFFY BEAR FINDS A PORCUPINE

III  CUFFY AND THE WONDERFUL SPRING

IV  CUFFY LEARNS SOMETHING

V  CUFFY AND THE MAPLE-SUGAR

VI  CUFFY MEETS A MAN

VII  THE ICE GOES OUT OF THE RIVER

VIII  CUFFY LEARNS TO SWIM

IX  A SURPRISE

X  CUFFY CLIMBS BLUE MOUNTAIN

XI  MRS. EAGLE IS ANGRY

XII  CUFFY BEAR GOES TO MARKET

XIII  HAYING-TIME

XIV  CUFFY LIKES BAKED BEANS

XV  HUNTING FOR A BEE-TREE

XVI  THE BEES STING CUFFY

XVII  CUFFY BEAR GOES SWIMMING

XVIII  CUFFY FRIGHTENS HIS MOTHER

XIX  THE LITTLE BEAR PETER

XX  LEARNING TO BOX

XXI  THE FOREST FIRE

XXII  THE RAIN COMES

XXIII  CUFFY BEAR GROWS SLEEPY





I

CUFFY WAKES UP


Far up on the side of Blue Mountain lived Cuffy Bear with his father and
mother and his little sister Silkie. Mr. Bear's house was quite the
finest for many miles around. It was what people call a cave, being made
entirely of stone, and so there was no danger of its ever catching fire;
and since it was built straight into the side of the mountain the roof
was so very, very thick that Cuffy's father never had to worry for fear
a tree would fall upon his house and hurt his family. No matter how hard
the wind blew, Mr. Bear was never afraid of that.

Little Cuffy was not a bad bear at heart. But often when he was playing
with Silkie, his sister, he would lose his temper and cuff her on the
head and make her cry. Then his father or his mother would cuff _him_.
Somehow, he never could learn not to strike out when he became angry.
That was why he was called Cuffy. It happened sometimes that a day or
two would pass without Cuffy's cuffing his sister. And Mr. Bear and Mrs.
Bear would begin to think that at last Cuffy had been cured of his bad
habit.

"I do believe the child is growing better mannered," Mrs. Bear would say
to her husband, as they watched their son and daughter playing upon the
floor. And then just as likely as not, the first thing they knew Cuffy
would give Silkie a good, hard box on the ear, or a slap right on the
end of her nose.

But for a long time every winter Cuffy was never naughty. You might
think that that was just before Christmas. But no--it was not then. All
winter long Cuffy was just as good as any little bear could be. He was
good because he was asleep! You see--when cold weather came, Mr. and
Mrs. Bear and their children stayed in their cozy house, which was snug
and warm, and slept and slept and slept for weeks and weeks until spring
came.

Now, this tale begins on the very first day of spring. And on that day
Mr. Bear waked up. He rose slowly to his feet, for his bones felt stiff
because he had been asleep for such a long time. And he was hungry--oh!
very hungry, because he had not eaten anything for months and months,
since he went to sleep at the beginning of winter.

He went to the door of his house and looked out. And he saw that the
weather was warm and fine. So he stepped back into the bedroom and
said--

_"Ou-e-e-ee!"_ Just like that. And then Mrs. Bear awaked. "Spring has
come," Mr. Bear told her, "and I am going out to fetch something to eat.
Wake up Cuffy and Silkie and tell them that it is time to get up."

Gently Mrs. Bear roused Cuffy and Silkie.

"Come, children! Run out and play and get your lungs full of nice, fresh
air. Now, be good and don't go far away!" she said.




II

CUFFY BEAR FINDS A PORCUPINE


For a few minutes Cuffy stood in the doorway and blinked and blinked. He
rubbed his eyes, for the bright sunlight hurt them. But soon he and
Silkie were frisking and tumbling about in the front-yard.

After a little while Cuffy remembered that there was an old tree over in
the pine woods--just the finest tree to climb that anybody could want.

"Let's go over to the old tree and play," Cuffy said.

"But Mother told us not to go far away," Silkie reminded him.

"Oh! I don't care," Cuffy said. "Besides, we'll be back before she
knows it."

But Silkie would not go with him. So naughty Cuffy started off alone for
the pine woods. He found the old tree. It seemed smaller than he
expected. The reason for that was because Cuffy himself had grown tall
during the months that he had spent in sleep.

He climbed the tree to the very top and as he looked down over the snow
he saw something moving a little way off. Whatever it was, it was much
smaller than Cuffy himself, so he was not afraid. And he scrambled down
to the ground and ran as fast as he could go to the place where he saw
the small thing moving. Cuffy wanted to see what it was. He was always
like that.

Cuffy found a little animal covered with stiff, sharp quills and he knew
that it was a porcupine. And all at once Cuffy felt very hungry. He
remembered that his father had sometimes brought home porcupine meat
and--yes, Cuffy actually smacked his lips! His mother was always telling
him not to smack his lips, but Cuffy forgot all about it now.

As Cuffy came running up Mr. Porcupine rolled himself into a round ball
and lay perfectly still. Now, Cuffy remembered that his father had often
told him never to touch a porcupine, because if he should he would get
his paws stuck full of quills. But now Cuffy decided that he would show
his father that he too was clever enough to kill a porcupine. So he
stepped close to the little 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 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.

"How much did you drink?" asked his mother.

"Oh--only a little," Cuffy answered faintly.

Then Mrs. Bear nodded her head three times. She was very wise--was Mrs.
Bear. And she knew quite well that Cuffy had drunk a great deal too much
of that nice-tasting water. So she made Cuffy lie down and gave him some
peppermint leaves to chew. In a little while he began to feel so much
better that before he knew it he had fallen asleep.

When Cuffy waked up he found that his father had come home. And soon Mr.
Bear had Cuffy on one knee, and Silkie on the other, and he was telling
them all about maple-sugar. For of course you knew all the time that
what Cuffy had found was not a spring at all--but a sugar-maple tree,
which Farmer Green had tapped so that he might gather the sap and boil
it until it turned to maple-sugar. If Cuffy had gone further down the
mountainside he would have found a great many other trees, each--like
the one he discovered--with a tin bucket hanging on it to catch the
sweet sap.

"So you see there are many things for little bears to learn," Mr. Bear
said, when he had finished. "And the one _big_ lesson you must learn is
to keep away from men. Farmer Green visits those trees every day to
gather the sap. So you must not go down there again."

A cold shiver went up and down Cuffy's back at these words. Farmer
Green! Cuffy had heard a great deal about Farmer Green and he certainly
did not want to meet him all alone and far from home. But as soon as the
tickle of that shiver stopped, Cuffy forgot all about his fright.

"This maple-sugar--does it taste as good as the sweet sap?" he asked his
father.

"Yes, my son--a hundred times better!" Mr. Bear replied. "I ate some
once And I shall never forget it."

_A hundred times better!_ After he had gone to bed that night the words
kept ringing in Cuffy's ears. _A hundred times better! A hundred times
better!... A hundred_--And now Cuffy was fast asleep and--I am sorry to
say it--sucking one of his paws for all the world as if it was a piece
of Farmer Green's maple-sugar.




V

CUFFY AND THE MAPLE-SUGAR


Another day had come and all the morning long Cuffy Bear and his sister
Silkie played and played as hard as they could. They played that they
were making maple-sugar. And they pretended to hang buckets on all the
trees near Mr. Bear's house. There were no maple trees about Cuffy's
home--only pine and hemlock and spruce--but if you are just _pretending_
to make maple-sugar any sort of tree will do.

While they were playing Cuffy kept wishing for some _real_ maple-sugar.
After all, the little cakes of snow that he and Silkie made and _called_
maple-sugar seemed very tasteless, no matter how much Cuffy pretended.
And later, when Silkie was taking her nap, and Cuffy had no one to play
with, he became so angry with the make-believe sugar that he struck the
little pats of snow as hard as he could and spoiled them. And then,
after one look toward the door of his father's house--to make sure that
his mother did not see him--Cuffy started on a trot down the
mountainside.

What do you suppose he was going to do?

To tell the truth, Cuffy himself did not quite know. When he came to the
tree that he had found the day before he stopped and drank some of the
sap once more; and he tried to imagine how sugar would taste _a hundred
times sweeter_. Then Cuffy went on down the mountainside.

At last he spied a little house in a clearing. From its chimney a
stream of smoke rose, and as Cuffy peeped from behind a tree he saw a
man come out and pick up an armful of wood from the woodpile nearby.
While Cuffy watched, the man carried in several loads. Soon the smoke
began fairly to pour out of the chimney; and then the man came out once
more, picked up an axe near the woodpile, and started off toward the
other side of the clearing.

Cuffy was trembling with excitement. The wind blew right in his face and
brought to him two odors that were quite different. One was the
man-scent, which Cuffy did not like at all, and which made his legs want
to run away. The other smell was most delightfully sweet. And it made
his nose want to go forward.

Which do you think won--Cuffy's nose or his legs?... Yes! His nose won!
Pretty soon Cuffy slipped from behind the tree and scampered as fast as
he could run to the door of the sugar-house--for that was what he had
found. He stuck his head inside and oh, joy! there was no one there.

Just inside the door stood a tub full of something brown. One sniff told
Cuffy that it was maple-sugar and he began to gulp great mouthfuls of
it. Yes! his father was right. It certainly was a hundred times sweeter
than the sap.

In the middle of the room was a big pan which gave off clouds of steam.
Cuffy wanted to see it. And with his mouth full of sugar he walked up to
the pan and looked into it. He saw a golden liquid, and Cuffy felt that
he simply _must_ taste that too. So he dipped both his front paws right
into the bubbling syrup.




VI

CUFFY MEETS A MAN


And then how Cuffy Bear did roar--just one second after he had stuck his
paws into the steaming pan. You see--he was so greedy that he had never
once stopped to think that the syrup was boiling hot.

Now, usually if you pick up anything hot you can drop it at once. But it
is not so with hot maple syrup. Cuffy's paws were covered with the
sticky brown stuff. He rubbed them upon his trousers, and he roared
again when he saw what he had done.

Then Cuffy had a happy thought. He would go out and shove his paws into
a snowbank. That would surely cool them. So out of the sugar-house he
dashed and across the clearing he ran, screaming _"Ough! ough! ough!"_
at the top of his voice, for the hot syrup made his paws smart terribly.
In his haste Cuffy did not notice that he was headed in the direction in
which the man had disappeared.

Now it happened that the man who tended the sugar-house fire had gone
only to the edge of the clearing; and when he heard Cuffy's shrieks he
looked around in great surprise. He and Cuffy saw each other at the same
time. And like a flash Cuffy turned and fairly flew the other way.

The man ran after him for a few steps. But he soon saw that he could
never catch Cuffy. So he stood still and watched the little bear bob
into the woods and vanish.

Poor Cuffy's heart was beating as if it would burst. He was so
frightened that he forgot all about his burned paws and he ran and ran
and ran up the steep mountainside. He did not mind the climb; he was
used to that. But to his great alarm the snow clung to his sticky paws
until each was just a great, round lump. They looked like the hands of a
snow-man.

Cuffy found it very hard to run with his paws like that. But he kept on
and on, until at last he came in sight of his father's house. Then he
stopped and sat down, right behind a knoll, where his mother could not
see him. He was very tired. And though he was no longer afraid that the
man would catch him, he began to be afraid of something else.... A
punishing? No--no! He had not thought of that. Cuffy was afraid that he
could never get rid of those big heavy lumps. He was afraid his paws
would always be covered with those hard balls of snow. You must
remember that he was a very _young_ little bear.

Well! After he had got his breath again Cuffy began to nibble at his
snow mittens. And little by little--to his delight--he removed them. And
still he kept on nibbling at his paws, and--yes! he actually put them
right inside his mouth and sucked them. He forgot all about his
_manners_, for underneath the snow he found the most beautiful, waxy
maple-sugar you can imagine. Each paw was just one big lollypop! And
though his burns still hurt him, Cuffy did not care very much. For those
lollypops were _two hundred times_ sweeter than anything he had ever
tasted in all his life!




VII

THE ICE GOES OUT OF THE RIVER


Farmer Green had taken his sap-buckets off the maple trees and _that_
meant the spring was fast going. At least, that was what Mr. Bear said.
And Cuffy noticed that every day there was a little less snow than there
had been the day before.

"The ice will soon go out," Mr. Bear said to Cuffy's mother at breakfast
one morning, "and then when I cross Pleasant Valley I shall have to swim
the river."

Cuffy knew that his father meant Swift River. In summer Cuffy could look
down from Blue Mountain and see the stream as it flashed through the
valley.

"Will the ice go out of the river to-day?" Cuffy asked.

"Well, now--" Mr. Bear said, "it might. And then again, it might not."
Mr. Bear never said a thing was _so_ unless he was sure of it.

Now, Cuffy thought it would be great fun to go down into the valley and
find out for himself if the ice really did go out. He had an idea that
it caused a terrific splitting and crashing and thundering noise and he
thought that perhaps some fish would be tossed up on the bank and then
he would have a good lunch.

When Mr. Bear had gone off down the mountain, "to see a bear," as he
explained to his wife, little Cuffy sneaked away from the house. His
mother was making the beds, and Silkie was pretending to help her. Now,
nobody _sneaks_ unless he knows he is doing something wrong. Cuffy knew
that his parents would not let him go down into the valley alone, so he
went without asking. And when he did at last come to the river there
was ice along both banks; but between them ran a broad stream of swift
water.

"The ice must have gone out in the night," Cuffy said to himself. And he
looked about in the hope of finding some fish on the banks. But not one
fish could he find.

He was disappointed. And he crept out onto the ice as far as he could go
and peeped over the edge into the water. He thought maybe he could at
least catch a fish with his paw.

Cuffy lay quite still for a long time. And then at last to his delight
he saw a fish right before him. He made a quick reach for it. And then
there was a sharp _crack!_ The ice tipped and Cuffy clung to it with all
his claws to keep from falling into the river. He backed away from the
edge and looked around. The bank was moving past him. He had never seen
such a thing and he was surprised.

Then he gave a cry which sounded in his throat like _"Oug!"_ and ended
with _"I-s-s-s!"_ through his nose. It meant that Cuffy was frightened.
For he saw that the ice he was on had broken away and was floating
rapidly down the stream.

He had not caught the fish, either. But he forgot all about that now.




VIII

CUFFY LEARNS TO SWIM


Yes! Cuffy Bear was floating down the river on a cake of ice! How he
wished he had been a good little bear and stayed at home, instead of
running away to the river all alone! He was huddled up in a little black
heap in the center of the cake, and crying as if his heart would break.
For Cuffy thought he would never see his mother and father and Silkie
again. If only he knew how to swim, like his father! But he didn't; and
there he was, being swept away down the valley, right toward Farmer
Green's house. It certainly was enough to make anybody weep.

When Cuffy thought about Farmer Green he was more frightened than ever
and he began to scream. He remembered all the dreadful things he had
heard about men and the things they do to little bears.

Pretty soon Cuffy saw something move up on the bank ahead of him. And he
stopped screaming. He was afraid that it was Farmer Green himself and he
thought he had better keep still. Then perhaps Farmer Green wouldn't see
him. But to his dismay the big black thing began to slide down the steep
bank right toward the river.

Cuffy's heart seemed to stand still. He shut his eyes tight and tried to
make himself as small as he could. And he hardly breathed.

Then somebody called his name. Cuffy was so surprised that he looked up,
and there was his father standing on the edge of the stream. Cuffy was
_so_ glad to see him!

Mr. Bear seemed very cross, but Cuffy did not mind that, he was _so_
glad to see his father.

"Oh, Father! What shall I do?" Cuffy cried.

Mr. Bear said just one word. It was _"Jump!"_

Cuffy could hardly believe his ears.

_"Jump!"_ said Mr. Bear again.

"I don't know how to swim," Cuffy whined.

_"Jump, jump, jump!"_ Mr. Bear repeated very sternly.

Still Cuffy did not jump. He was so afraid of that rushing water!

Then Mr. Bear became very, very angry. He gave a great roar and plunged
into the icy water. With a few strong strokes--for Mr. Bear was a fine
swimmer--he reached the middle of the river. And as he swam close up to
Cuffy he reached out and gave that naughty, frightened little bear a
shove that sent him flying into the stream.

Cuffy started to scream. But his shriek was cut off short as he sank,
head and all, into the cold, cold river. In another moment his nose came
up out of the water. It was only an instant, but to Cuffy it seemed a
long, long time before he could breathe again. And now, to his great
surprise, he found that he was swimming as well as his father.

Now, little bears are different from little boys and girls. They don't
have to _learn_ to swim. Cuffy didn't know it. But his father did. That
was why Mr. Bear told him to jump. He knew that as soon as Cuffy found
himself in the water he could swim as well as anybody.

In another minute Cuffy and his father were safe on the bank, and in
another second after that they were running toward home as fast as Cuffy
could go, so they wouldn't take cold, you know.

Cuffy had to go to bed for the rest of the day, as a punishment. And as
he lay on his little bed he could hear his father and mother laughing in
the next room. He didn't see how they could laugh. But you know, Cuffy
didn't realize how funny he had looked, floating down the river on the
cake of ice.




IX

A SURPRISE


One day Cuffy Bear and his little sister Silkie had been making sand
pies. And now, having grown tired of that, they were squatting down on
the ground and had covered their legs with the clean white sand. Perhaps