“Whoever told you,” she questioned, “that it’s not wrong to hurt an animal, so long as it can’t fight back?”

The boy eyed her strangely.  Rose-Marie could almost detect a gleam of latent interest in his dark eyes.  And then, as if he had gained a sort of confidence in her, he answered.

“Nobody never told me,” he said gruffly.  “But I know.”

The kitten against Rose-Marie’s breast cried piteously.  Perhaps it was the hopelessness of the cry that made her want so desperately to make the boy understand.  Conquering the loathing she had felt toward him she managed the ghost of a smile.

“I wish,” she said, and the smile became firmer, brighter, as she said it, “I wish that you’d sit down, here, beside me.  I want to tell you about the animals that I’ve had for pets—­and about how they loved me.  I had a white dog once; his name was Dick.  He used to go to the store for me, he used to carry my bundles home in his mouth—­and he did tricks—­”

The boy had seated himself, gingerly, on the bench.  He interrupted her, and his voice was eager.

“Did yer have t’ beat him,” he questioned, “t’ make him do the tricks?  Did he bleed when yer beat him?”

Again Rose-Marie gasped.  She leaned forward until her face was on a level with the boy’s face.

“Why,” she asked him, “do you think that the only way to teach an animal is to teach him by cruelty?  I taught my dog tricks by being kind and sweet to him.  Why do you talk of beatings—­I couldn’t hurt anything, even if I disliked it, until it bled!”

The small boy drew back from Rose-Marie.  His expression was vaguely puzzled—­it seemed almost as if he did not comprehend what her words meant.

“My pa beats me,” he said suddenly, “always he beats me—­when he’s drunk!  An’ sometimes he beats me when he ain’t.  He beats Ma, too, an’ he uster beat Jim, ‘n’ Ella.  He don’t dare beat Jim now, though”—­this proudly—­“Jim’s as big as he is now, an’ Ella—­nobody’d dast lay a hand on Ella ...” almost as suddenly as he had started to talk, the boy stopped.

For the moment the episode of the kitten was a forgotten thing.  There was only pity, only a blank sort of horror, on Rose-Marie’s face.

“Doesn’t your father love you—­any of you?” she asked.

“Naw.”  The boy’s mouth was a straight line—­a straight and very bitter line, for such a young mouth.  “Naw, he only loves his booze.  He hits me all th’ time—­an’ he’s four times as big as me!  An’ so I hit whoever’s smaller’n I am.  An’ even if they cry I don’t care.  I hate things that’s little—­that can’t take care o’ themselves.  Everything had oughter be able t’ take care of itself!”

“Haven’t you”—­again Rose-Marie asked a question—­“haven’t you ever loved anything that was smaller than you are?  Haven’t you ever had a pet?  Haven’t you ever felt that you must protect and take care of some one—­or something?  Haven’t you?”