[Brigham Young] ... At the end of the discussion I was called upon to decide the question, and perceiving the feeling among the Saints, I told them I was reminded of the anecdote of the negro's attempt at shooting a squirrel. His master having occasion to be absent from home, charged him to be sure and not meddle with his guns and ammunition; but no sooner had the master got fairly out of the way, when the negro's curiosity prompted him to try one of the master's guns; he accordingly took one down which had been loaded for some time, and went into the woods. He soon saw a squirrel, and crept up a hill behind a log and fired, but the gun being heavily charged, it knocked the negro over, and he rolled down the hill.
Upon gaining his equilibrium and realizing his defeat, he looked up from the ground where he lay, and seeing the squirrel jumping from tree to tree as if conscious of victory, he cried,--"Well, well, cuffy, if you had been at the other end of the gun you would have known more about it." This excited laughter, in which all the company joined...
[Source: Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801-1844, ed. Elden Jay Watson (Salt Lake City: Smith Secretarial Service, 1968).]
In our neck of the woods fried squirrel is delicious. I wonder if "cuffy" was a slang term for "scruffy" or "scruffies", another term for the scruffy appearance of black squirrels vs. the ordinary kind. We also call squirrels "tree rats".
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