“I am going to suggest something for you to do, Shaggy,” he said.
The bear looked puzzled but hopeful.
“You won’t like it,” Father Thrift continued. “No one ever did. But it is the only way by which you can become well and strong again.
“The very first time I saw you I knew that you were not eating the right kind of meals.
“Why, bears are known to have such good appetites that we often hear boys say, ‘I’m as hungry as a bear!’
“But you don’t feel that way. That is because you eat too much honey and not enough solid, nourishing food.
“This makes you sick. And while perhaps you wouldn’t die from it, you would grow to be cross and disagreeable. Then no one would like you. Would that be any better?”
The bear scratched his head. “But what am I to do?” he asked.
“Stop eating sweets for three months,” advised Father Thrift. “Don’t you see that you spoil your appetite for good roots and berries by eating too much honey?
“What, do you suppose, would become of boys and girls who ate nothing but cookies and candy, instead of milk and eggs, and meat and bread, and vegetables and fruit?