chose.  I never saw him give that horse a blow or a kick, in all the two years that he tended him.  Jack was fourteen when he began, and sixteen when he left off being his groom.  He was strong and healthy then; but at nineteen he died; and he told me that it made him very happy to think that he had never been cruel to any of God’s poor creatures.  But I must not say any more now about the noble horse.  There is another animal, the natural companion of man, the dog, which comes next in value; for though it cannot take us on a long journey, or convey our goods from place to place, it stands sentry over us and our property, being not only a good servant, but a most intelligent, fond, and faithful friend.  It does not need to be broke in, like the horse; it learns the ways and the wishes of those around it; and the more liberty you give it, the more eager it is to serve and please you.  The dog deserves a chapter to himself, and shall have it.

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CHAPTER III.

The dog.

There is a great deal of sorrow in the world:  perhaps, through the goodness of God, you have been kept from suffering much yourselves, but you must have seen trouble among your friends and neighbours; sickness and death, perhaps.  And it often happens that great distress comes on people, so as to keep them hungry and cold, for want of what would buy enough food and fuel.  Besides this, how often the bad conduct of one in a family will make the rest unhappy!  A single drunkard, or thief, or violent person, will bring shame and misery on all the rest.  The world is full of troubles; but I do not think that we often find, even among those of our own nature, men, women, boys, and girls, not related to us, a person with so little selfishness as to be always sorry and sad when we are so, and because we are so.  When we meet with any one so kind-hearted, we love that person, and would do a great deal to serve or oblige such a feeling friend.

Now, I always observed that a dog, when kindly treated and taken care of, will show his concern for the troubles of his master or mistress, in a wonderful way.  Indeed, I never, in my life, had a dog that would not do so; and seeing this has convinced me that it is worse than cruel to treat a dog ill—­it is most ungrateful.  It does sometimes happen that a dog has a bad and violent temper, even from a puppy; and if very careful treatment does not soon cure this, I should say that such a dog ought to be destroyed, by a quick and easy death; not making the poor brute suffer for what it cannot help.  But in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, a 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