THE RAVEN AND THE DOG. 18J 



however, that he always ended his pranks, hy 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 hoy 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 witli 

 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 common-place pro- 

 cess, and by which, though the memory is impressed, 

 the heart may remain altogether untouched and un- 

 influenced. 



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 j 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 clanger, and 

 dragging his heavy kennel towards it, reached his 



