"Did you frighten the bear away, Mother?" he asked.

"There was no bear," Mrs. Coon told him. "And it's lucky for you that
there wasn't. I saw your tail sticking out of this tree and I thought I
would teach you a lesson. Now, don't ever do such a foolish thing again.
Just think what a fix you would have been in if Johnnie Green had come
along. He could have caught you just as easily as anything."

Fatty Coon was so glad to be free once more that he promised to be good
forever after. And he was just as good as any little coon could be--all
the rest of that day.




XV

FATTY VISITS THE SMOKE-HOUSE


The winter was fast going. And one fine day in February Fatty Coon crept
out of his mother's house to enjoy the warm sunshine--and see what he
could find to eat.

Fatty was much thinner than he had been in the fall. He had spent so
much of the time sleeping that he had really eaten very little. And now
he hardly knew himself as he looked at his sides. They no longer stuck
out as they had once.