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.