I am telling you this because you will see very soon what we gain by being friendly even to a wild animal. The Himalayan black bear, like the other black bear, is also very fond of honey, and of everything sweet. In the country where he lives there grows a berry called mawa, which is very sweet--even sweeter than the strawberry; and the people of the villages make jam from it. These berries grow quite wild, on bushes here and there in the fields, and even in the jungles near by. When the berries are ripe, the people send out their children to gather them from the bushes in the fields; and the children carry baskets so as to bring back as many berries as they can. But when the berries are ripe, the bears also want to eat them! So it sometimes happens that half a dozen children are picking the berries from a thick bush, when suddenly a bear comes round the bush and starts gobbling up the berries as fast as he can! Do the children get frightened and run away? Not a bit! They want _their_ share of the berries, too! By this time the bush may be getting empty, and the children have not quite filled their baskets. The bear keeps on gobbling up the berries, and even pushing past the children to get at a bunch. What then? Why, the children raise their hands, and _just spank the wild bear_! "Go away, you have had enough!" they say. "Can't you go to another bush? There must be others right in the jungle, where _we_ can't go!" And, can you imagine it, a wild bear there has never hurt a child! When the children spank him and push him away, telling him that he has had enough from that bush, he _does_ go away to some other bush. Of course, the spanking does not really hurt him. I have told this to you, my dear, just to show you that there is never any real reason for quarreling and fighting, among children, or even among men. _If children and wild bears can get along together_, why cannot children and children, or men and men, or nations and nations? Surely there are enough berries and other good things for all, if we only look around! Remember this always, even when you grow up, if you want to be good men and women, and good citizens of your country. CHAPTER XIV Bears: The Tricky Trap Now I am going to tell you something funny about the bear. You have seen lots of wild animals in the zoo, and you may sometimes have wondered how these animals were caught. In another book I shall tell you all about the different ways of catching different kinds of wild animals; but now I shall only tell you how a wild bear is caught. Of course, there are two or three ways of catching him alive, but I shall describe to you now just one way. You must know by this time that everybody in the world--whether man, woman, or child--has _some fault_. Some have a bad temper, others are rude, and still others are obstinate; and many, especially children, are too greedy! And so it is among animals: they all have one fault or another.