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 CasselVs 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 huinani- 
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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