Kindness to Animals | Page 7

dog's savageness is the fault of those who have brought him up: and
few things are more wicked than to teach or encourage a dog to fight
his own race, or to bark and fly at human beings. When the world was
as God made it, there was no hatred in it, no quarrelling, no wish in any
living creature to frighten or hurt any other living creatures; but when
Adam became a sinner, his sin broke through all this beautiful order,
and peace, and love, and set the animals against each other, and against
himself. I am trying always to remember this; for when they alarm or
distress me, and I am thinking to punish them, I ought not to forget
what first made the brutes vicious, and brought so much suffering on
them. It was man's sin alone: man should therefore do the best he can to
make them amends; and not increase their misery, as he often does, by
cruel severity. I think you will agree with me in this. Besides, it is a
certain truth, that God's eye is upon us and on the animals about us, as
much as it was on Adam and the living creatures that came to him to be
named; and though we and they are much changed for the worse, yet
the Lord God never does or can change. He is as righteous, as holy, as
merciful, and as just to-day, as he was then. How often has Jack, when
he saw a thoughtless boy hurting a dog, or any other animal, gone up to
him, and said, on his fingers, in a very quiet, gentle, but earnest manner,
"God see--God angry." He felt much for the dumb beast, suffering pain;
but more for the boy who was forgetting that the Lord's hand would yet
punish him, when he least expected it: for Jack very well knew that the
Bible says, "He shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed
no mercy."
Dogs have been a great amusement to me ever since I was a baby; and I
never have been without one in the house when I could keep one.
Ladies and gentlemen are not often willing to let their carpets be soiled
by dogs; but the poor people, who are not troubled with carpets, make

companions of them. I am writing this book in a room with a carpet and
good furniture, but I have my two dogs with me. There is little Fiddy,
the small spaniel, at my feet, where he has lain every day for eight
years; and there is Bronti, the fine big Newfoundlander, lying, where
do you think? Why the rogue has got upon the sofa, and when I shake
my head at him, he wags his long tail, and turns up his large bright eyes
to my face, as much as to say, "Pray let me stop here; it is so
comfortable." But no, Bronti, you must walk down, my fine fellow, or
some lady coming to see me may have her gown soiled, which would
not be fair. We have no right to make our pets a plague to other people,
and, perhaps, a means of injuring them too.
That was enough for Bronti; no need of a loud, cross, or threatening
voice. He saw that I wished him to leave the sofa, and he wags his tail
as contentedly on the carpet. I can manage him with a word, almost
with a look, because he was born in the house, and has never been
away from me; but master Fiddy was a year or two old when I had him,
and some things he will do in spite of me. He will hunt a cat, kill a bird,
and growl most furiously over a bone. Bronti has the same nature, but
his love for us overcomes it all. He would live peaceably with a cat, it
we had one; he will let the chickens and pigeons perch upon him, or
walk between his feet; and last year I had half a dozen tame mice,
which I used to let out upon him, when they would nestle in his warm
coat, run races over and under him, and he would not move a limb, for
fear of hurting one. As to a bone, he will allow me to take it out of his
mouth at any time; and, what is more, he will readily give it up to
Fiddy, whose little teeth can only nibble off the meat; and when he has
done that, Bronti takes it, and munches the bone.
His mother was full grown when I had her, and she was very fierce: if
any workman came to the house, unless her master or I was by to
restrain her, she