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.