Most of us are fond of pets, and it would be hard to find the boy or girl who didn’t want either a dog or a kitten.  It is small wonder, for a dog is a very faithful friend, and anything more delightful than a tiny, fluffy kitten, full of fun and spirits, it would be hard to find.  But sometimes these pets do not have a very easy time of it.  Only a few days ago we saw a little boy out on the sidewalk with his kitten.  He was enjoying himself, but the kitten wasn’t, for he would pick it up and throw it across the yard, till poor pussy mewed pitifully.  Now, if our boys and girls are going to have pets, they ought to learn to treat them very kindly, just as they would wish to be treated themselves.

You may think, perhaps, that your dog belongs to you, and for that reason you can do with him just as you please.  But do you ever stop to consider that Rover or Don may not enjoy being kicked and beaten and pulled about any more than you would if you were in his place?  That is something that we must think about.  We might have been born helpless, in the power of other and larger creatures.  But it has pleased our Father to make us what we are, and to give us the power over his other creatures, and for that reason we should be very kind and gentle with them.  He wishes us to be merciful, and so we have his promise that those who are merciful shall have mercy shown them, if ever they come to be in need of it.  And then, that it may be very plain to us, he tells us that “the merciful man is merciful to his beast.”  That means that he is kind and gentle to all the creatures that he has anything to do with, to his horse and his cow, to his dog, and even to the tiny kitten that ties itself up into a ball, chasing its own tail.  Isn’t this promise worth trying for?

[Entered at the Post Office at Elgin, Ill., as Second Class Mail Matter.]

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