white
chin_ and _long side-whiskers on his jaws_. Some people think that of
all kinds of bears he is the most handsome.

Although he often goes up very high on the side of the mountains, he
sometimes comes down to the country below, where there are many
villages. But the bear is quite friendly, and never hurts the people
in the villages, although he is strong enough to kill a man. So the
people are also very kind and friendly to him, and never try to hurt
him. When you grow up you may read that there are some people in India
who are always kind to _all_ animals, tame or wild.[2]

[Footnote 2: _To the Teacher._--Please explain to the class that the
sect called Jains do not hurt the smallest creature, and will suffer
the sting of a wasp rather than kill it.]

[Illustration: Himalayan Black Bear]

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 bus