BY THE WAYSIDE 
72 
eating the seeds from the cones. Some 
would perch on the cones and some 
would hang on with their bills. Their 
bills were crossed and had sharp points. 
They talked to themselves and seemed to 
have a sociable time. We stood under 
the trees they were in and watched them 
but they did not seem to care. 
Maybel Jackson. 
Kindness to Animals. 
The Lincoln Neb. Humane Society 
offered prizes to Lincoln school children 
for essays on ‘’Kindness to Animals” and 
the following letter was among those 
received: 
' There are many reasons why we should 
be kind to animals. One reason is that 
they have as much right on this earth as 
we, so deserve to be treated with kind¬ 
ness, as well as ourselves. 
Some people think dumb animals do, 
not feel kindness as well as human beings 
but it is a great mistake for instance just 
notice when a dog is spoken cross to or 
beaten by his master he goes off looking 
so pitiful and as if he had not a friend; 
while if he is spoken kind to he looks if 
he would give anything if he could say a 
word, but their looks tell how happy they 
are. Dogs are one of the bests friends of 
man. They save many peoples’ lives 
when men could not. But they cannot 
live on kind'words alone neither can any 
other animal. They must be well fed 
and have clean comfortable places to 
sleep. 
Birds are another useful animal and 
one which is sometimes treated cruelly. 
We should never shoot them for eating a 
little grain or fruit for that amounts to 
nothing according to the crops the worms, 
and bugs would destroy. It is very cruel 
for bovs or anyone to destroy the birds’ 
nests, eggs, or young ones and just try to 
imagine how she feels when she comes 
home to find her young ones destroyed. 
She feels just exactly the same as our 
mother’s would in such a case. 
Horses are still another animal which 
is often mistreated. Sometimes when a 
horse gets old and blind his master 
thinks. “Well he does not earn his liv¬ 
ing any more,” and does not treat him 
with near the kindness he ought to, after 
he, the horse, has served him all his life. 
He ought to treat the horse with even 
more kindness than in his younger days. 
Just as if when we got old we were not 
half fed nor half cared for just because we 
could not work anv longer. A horse is 
to be used as beast of burden but their 
masters sometimes try to make them pull 
more than they are able and then beat 
them because they cannot pull it, which 
is very cruel and I hope there are not 
many people who do the like. When one 
goes into the barn one should not speak 
cross to the horses or kick at them but 
just say a kind word to them. Their 
barn should be light and clean not dark 
and dirty. Care should be taken to see 
if harness fits comfortable. 
One could write a whole book on 
“Kindness to Animals” and still think of 
more to write for there is nothing like 
“being kind” the world over to man-or 
lower animals. 
i ' 
Every animal on this earth is of some 
use or God would never have put them 
here, therefore let us be kind to them and 
' 
help them when ever we can. 
Estella Mefford 
Greenwood, Neb. 
