388 Life and Immortality. 



and yet, when in good hands, they are sure to become very 

 loving friends, and even to show considerable sympathy 

 towards each other. Such an exhibition of good feeling 

 was observed by the writer a few years ago. The dog, a 

 large black Newfoundland, had contracted a warm and 

 devoted friendship for a gray cat that was an inmate of the 

 same family. When the cat was assailed by one of her 

 kind, or by a strange dog, the Newfoundland would pick her 

 up in his mouth and carry her to the house out of reach of 

 danger, the cat maintaining all the while the most perfect 

 serenity of composure, knowing that she was in the care of 

 one who meant her no ill. When the same cat would 

 become sick, the Newfoundland would lie down by her side, 

 caress her with his tongue, and show in every way possible 

 that he was sorry that she was sick. 



Many examples are recorded of birds feeling sympathy 

 with the lost or deserted young of other species, and that 

 have taken upon themselves the task of feeding the starving 

 children. A pair of robins had constructed a nest near to 

 the writer's home in the country, where in due season a 

 family of four children was raised. Disaster soon came 

 to the little ones, for both parents were slain by some wicked 

 boys of the neighborhood. There dwelt in the same locality 

 a pair of bluebirds, but between the two families there had 

 never been apparent the least interchange of friendship. 

 Each family kept to itself, and attended to its own business. 

 But when the cry of the young robins in their piteous 

 demands for food rent the air, the bluebirds came over to their 

 home to discover what the trouble was. They were not 

 slow to perceive the sad state of things. Their sympathies 

 were at once aroused, and their energies soon bent in the 

 direction of relieving the sufferings of the little orphaned 

 robins. For the next two weeks they had all they could do 

 in providing meat for their own and the robins' young. 



While capable of showing sympathy for near as well as 

 distant kin, the lower animals have also the capacity to 



