ANIMAL FRIENDS 



Among all the animals that have proved themselves 

 friendly helpers, there are none so friendly or so help- 

 ful as those that live with us. Those domestic ani- 

 mals, as we call them, were once as wild as the wolf, 

 or the buffalo, or the mountain goat. They have be- 

 come oui' friends and our servants because of the long 

 ages of care and training that man has given them. 



No one knows when first the dog lost his wild, 

 wolfish nature, and became man's friend. Even 

 when men were so wild themselves that they lived 

 in caves, they had dogs living with them in the 

 friendly way that ours do now. 



As long ago as the time of Abraham, shepherds 

 tended sheep in the pastures, and the wool upon the 

 sheeps' back grew long and soft enough to spin and 

 to weave into woolen cloth. When the sheep were 

 wild animals they had no such wool. Then it was 

 short and stiff and coarse, wholly unfit for spinning 

 into threads long enough to weave into cloth. The 

 skins of the wild sheep furnished men with clothing 

 then, and it was not until they had been taken care 

 of for a long, long time that the wool began to be 

 fine enough and long enough to use for weaving. 



Sheep and goats have always been among those 

 animals which are most useful to man, for they need 

 very little care and give great return. Sheep can live 



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