46 BOOK OF A HUNDRED BEARS 



The prosecution demanded the death of the cul- 

 prit. She had broken the forest law and must 

 be killed. She was a danger to the public — 

 an outlaw. MacBride listened patientl}^ He 

 cross-examined the witnesses. He showed that 

 the victim was, himself, violating the forest law in 

 chasing the cub; that he was the unprovoked and 

 wanton aggressor; that the mother bear had every 

 reason to suppose that her cub was in imminent 

 danger. Following a sacred instinct in defense of 

 her young, she had exercised the right that belongs 

 to all animals in the Park, that of self-defense. 

 To punish this instinct, to pronounce her guilty, 

 would be a violation of the treaty, would set aside 

 the forest law in favor of one who, by his own 

 act, had placed himself beyond its protection, and 

 would make one law for the animals of the Park 

 and another for man. MacBride refused to do it. 

 He held to the forest law and acquitted the 

 defendant. It was forest justice. 



Do you wonder that these wild beings of the 

 Park know him and trust him and are secure in 

 his justice? So well they know it, that even the 



