342 THE RA FEN AND THE DOG. 



of which the bird would often snatch up, almost from the very 

 mouth of the dog, and hasten beyond the reach of his chain, 

 as if to tantalise his four-footed friend, and then hopping 

 towards him, would play about and hang it close to his nose, 

 and then as speedily, at the moment the dog was preparing to 

 snap it up, would dart off beyond the reach of the chain. At 

 other times he would hide the piece of meat under a stone, and 

 then coming back, with a cunning look, would perch upon the 

 dog's head. It was observed, however, that he always ended 

 his pranks by either sharing or giving up the whole piece to 

 his friend, the dog. 



The intimacy continued for a length of time, and terminated 

 only with the death of the poor Raven, who was killed by a 

 boy throwing a stone at it, for which he was very properly 

 dismissed from the service of his master. The author would 

 here suggest the propriety of parents and teachers losing no 

 opportunity of instilling into the minds of children a feeling 

 of kindness and benevolence to the brute creation. He has 

 again and again witnessed with pain the utter absence of these 

 feelings in children, whose daily lessons at school from the 

 Bible ought to have been attended with different effects — one 

 instance amongst the thousands that might be adduced of the 

 facility with which religious truths can be taught by a routine 

 and commonplace process, and by which, though the memory 

 is impressed, the heart may remain altogether untouched and 

 uninfluenced. 



Very different from the character and disposition of the idle 

 and heedless boy who killed this poor bird was the conduct of 

 a dog (we do not now recollect whether it was the Raven's chief 

 friend, the otter-dog, or another), by whom its life had been a 

 short time before preserved. By some accident the Raven had 

 fallen into a tub of water, and either weakened by struggling, 

 or unable to get out, owing to its feathers being soaked with 

 water, it was nearly drowned. The dog, chained at a short 

 distance, saw the poor bird's danger, and dragging his heav^i 

 kennel towards it, reached his head over the side of the tub, 

 and taking the drowning Raven up in his mouth, laid him 

 gently on the ground, where he soon recovered, to die by the 



