h. 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.

So the people who want to catch a wild animal find out first what
fault that kind of animal has--whether he is greedy, or obstinate, or
bad tempered. And they _catch the animal because of that very fault_!

A bear is very obstinate; in fact the bear, the pig, the donkey, and
the mule are among the most obstinate of animals. So, because the bear
is very obstinate, he will never give up when he meets anything that
blocks his way; and if he has made up his mind to do anything, he will
never give up, even if he finds he _cannot_ do it and that it is very
foolish to try to do it.

So the people remember the bear's obstinacy, and catch him in this
way:

They find a large tree which has a bough fifteen or twenty feet from
the ground; then they tie a pot of honey on the bough, quite two or
three yards away from the fork where the bough joins the trunk. So, if
a bear wants to get at the honey, he will have to climb up the trunk,
and then walk along the bough to the place where the pot is tied.

But the people also take a heavy stone, tie a stout rope around it,
and hang up the stone by the rope from another bough higher