and the door of the entrance was too 

 narrow to admit of its being drawn in 

 thus. But the Rat was equal to the 

 emergency. In a moment he be- 

 thought himself, laid the fish on the 

 small platform before the door, and 

 then entering his house he put out his 

 mouth, took the fish by the nose and 

 thus pulled it in and made a meal of it. 

 One of the most remarkable instances 

 of carrying on a career of theft came 

 under our own observation, says a 

 writer in CasseWs Magazine. A friend 

 in northeast Essex had a very fine 

 Aberdeenshire Terrier, a female, and a 

 very affectionate relationship sprang 

 up between this Dog and a Tom-cat. 

 The Cat followed the Dog with the 

 utmost fondness, purring and running 

 against it, and would come and call at 

 the door for the Dog to come out. 

 Attention was first drawn to the pair 

 by this circumstance. One evening 

 we were visiting our friend and heard 

 the Cat about the door calling, and 

 some one said to our friend that the 

 cat was noisy. " He wants little Dell," 

 said he — that being the Dog's name ; 

 we looked incredulous. " Well, you 

 shall see," said he, and opening the 

 door he let the Terrier out. At once 

 the Cat bounded toward her, fawned 

 round her, and then, followed by the 

 Dog, ran about the lawn. But a 

 change came. Some kittens were 

 brought to the house, and the Terrier 

 got much attached to them and they 

 to her. The Tom cat became neglected, 

 and soon appeared to feel it. By and 

 by, to the surprise of every one, the 

 Tom somehow managed to get, and to 

 establish in the hedge of the garden, 

 two kittens, fiery, spitting little things, 

 and carried on no end of depredation 

 on their account. Chickens went ; the 

 fur and remains of little Rabbits were 

 often found round the nest, and pieces 

 of meat disappeared from kitchen and 

 larder. This went on for some time, 

 when suddenly the Cat disappeared — 

 had been shot in a wood near by, by a 



game-keeper, when hunting to provide 

 for these wild kittens, which were 

 allowed to live in the hedge, as they 

 kept down the Mice in the garden. 

 This may be said to be a case of 

 animal thieving for a loftier purpose 

 than generally obtains, mere demand 

 for food and other necessity. 



That nature goes her own way is 

 illustrated by these anecdotes of birds 

 and animals, and by many others even 

 more strange and convincing. The 

 struggle for existence, like the brook, 

 goes on forever, and the survival, if 

 not of the fittest, at least of the 

 strongest, must continue to be the rule 

 of life, so long as the economical 

 problems of existence remain un- 

 solved. Man and beast must be fed. 

 " Manna," to some extent, will always 

 be provided by generous humani- 

 tarianism. There will always be John 

 Howards. Occasionally a disinterested, 

 self-abnegating soul like that of John 

 Woolman will appear among us — doing 

 good from love ; and, it may be, 

 men like Jonathan Chapman — Johnny 

 Appleseed, he was called from his 

 habit of planting apple seeds where- 

 ever he went, as he distributed tracts 

 among the frontier settlers in the early 

 days of western history. He would 

 not harm even a Snake. His heart 

 was right, though his judgment was 

 little better than that of many modern 

 sentimentalists who cannot apparently 

 distinguish the innocuous from the 

 venemous. 



It does seem that birds and animals 

 are warranted in committing every 

 act of vandalism that they are 

 accused of. They are unquestionably 

 entitled by every natural right to 

 everything of which they take 

 possession. The farmer has no moral 

 right to deny them a share in the pro- 

 duct of his fields and orchards ; the 

 gardener is their debtor (at least of the 

 birds), and the government, which 

 benefits also from their industry, should 

 give them its protection. — C. C. M. 



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