or young
cattle who live in the Old Pasture during the summer. He had been afraid
that they might stupidly kick over the pail and spill the berries, and
he had hurried to drive whoever it was away. It hadn't entered his head
that it could be anybody who would eat those berries.

When he had yelled and Buster Bear had suddenly appeared, struggling to
get off the pail which had caught over his head, Farmer Brown's boy had
been too frightened to even move. Then he had seen Buster tear away
through the brush even more frightened than he was, and right away his
courage had begun to come back.

"If he is so afraid of me, I guess I needn't be afraid of him," said
he. "I've lost my berries, but it is worth it to find out that he is
afraid of me. There are plenty more on the bushes, and all I've got to
do is to pick them. It might be worse."

He walked over to the place where the pail had been, and then he
remembered that when Buster ran away he had carried the pail with him,
hanging about his neck. He whistled. It was a comical little whistle of
chagrin as he realized that he had nothing in which to put more berries,
even if he picked them. "It's worse than I thought," cried he. "That
bear has cheated me out of that berry pie my mother promised me." Then
he began to laugh, as he thought of how funny Buster Bear had looked
with the pail about his neck, and then because, you know he is learning
to be a philosopher, he once more repeated, "It might have been worse.
Yes, indeed, it might have been worse. That bear might have tried to eat
me instead of the berries. I guess I'll go eat that lunch I left back by
the spring, and then I'll go home. I can pick berries some other day."

Chuckling happily over Buster Bear's great fright, Farmer Brown's boy
tramped back to the spring where he had left two thick sandwiches on a
flat stone when he started to save his pail of berries. "My, but those
sandwiches will taste good," thought he. "I'm glad they are big and
thick. I never was hungrier in my life. Hello!" This he exclaimed right
out loud, for he had just come in sight of the flat stone where the
sandwiches should have been, and they were not there. No, Sir, there
wasn't so much as a crumb left of those two thick sandwiches. You see,
Old Man Coyote had found them and gobbled them up while Farmer Brown's
boy was away.

But Farmer Brown's boy didn't know anything about Old Man Coyote. He
rubbed his eyes and stared everywhere, even up