Buster heard light footsteps, and peeping out, he saw Billy
Mink and Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare and Prickly Porky and Reddy
Fox and Jimmy Skunk. Even timid little Whitefoot the Wood Mouse was
where he could peer out and see without being seen. Of course, Chatterer
the Red Squirrel and Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel were there. There they
all sat in a great circle around him, each where he felt safe, but where
he could see, and every one of them laughing and making fun of Buster.

"Thief, thief, thief!" screamed Sammy until his throat was sore. The
worst of it was Buster knew that everybody knew that it was true. That
awful pail was proof of it.

"I wish I never had thought of berries," growled Buster to himself.

XXII

BUSTER BEAR HAS A FIT OF TEMPER

A temper is a bad, bad thing
When once it gets away.
There's nothing quite at all like it
To spoil a pleasant day.

Buster Bear was in a terrible temper. Yes, Sir, Buster Bear was having
the worst fit of temper ever seen in the Green Forest. And the worst
part of it all was that all his neighbors of the Green Forest and a
whole lot from the Green Meadows and the Smiling Pool were also there to
see it. It is bad enough to give way to temper when you are all alone,
and there is no one to watch you, but when you let temper get the best
of you right where others see you, oh, dear, dear, it certainly is a
sorry sight.

Now ordinarily Buster is one of the most good-natured persons in the
world. It takes a great deal to rouse his temper. He isn't one tenth so
quick tempered as Chatterer the Red Squirrel, or Sammy Jay, or Reddy
Fox. But when his temper is aroused and gets away from him, then watch
out! It seemed to Buster that he had had all that he could stand that
day and a little more. First had come the fright back there in the Old
Pasture. Then the pail had slipped down behind his ears and held fast,
so he had run all the way to the Green Forest with it hanging about his
neck. This was bad enough, for he knew just how funny he must look, and
besides, it was very uncomfortable. But to have Sammy Jay call everybody
within hearing to come and see him was more than he could stand. It
seemed to Buster as if everybody who lives in the Green Forest, on the
Green Meadows, or around the Smiling Brook, was sitting around his
hiding place, laughing and making fun of him. It was more than any
self-respecting Bear could stand.

With a roar of anger Buste