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.