animals are not ours. They do not re-al-ly belong to us. They are not our very own. Whose are they then? Look in the Book of Psalms and see. It is God who says―

"All the beasts of the forest are mine,

And so are the cattle upon a thou-sand hills.”

All the animals really belong to God. They are His, and He lends them to us. He lends us the horse and the don-key to be our servants, and help us in doing our hard work. He lends us the dog and the cat to be our playmates and friends.

Now as God lends us these animals and many others for our pleas-ure and our serv-ice, how must we use them? Kindly and well. God cares for them. He cannot bear us to ill-treat them.

Wild animals, who lead the life for which they were first made, can take care of themselves. If we shut them up, and tame them, we must take care of them. What do they want?

First, proper food. How sad it is to think of animals under our care being hungry hour after hour, and not able to get food! Yet a great many pets are starved to death every year, because boys and girls forget to feed them. We ought to find out how much food our pets need, and give them that every day at the right time, and no more. Wild animals know better than to eat too much. Tame animals have lost some of their sense, and cannot tell how much to eat at a time. They have been known to

die from eating too much.

Next, we must give them proper space to live in. We must not keep a bird in too small a cage, or

F

rabbits in too small a hutch, or horses in too small a stable. And we must keep the cage, and the hutch, and the stable clean. Few animals like dirt. Dirt often makes them pine away and even die.

We should show kindness to all creatures. You might easily learn these pretty lines of an English poet

"He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."

The days are cold, the nights are long,
The north wind sings a doleful song;
Then hush again upon my breast,
All merry things are now at rest
Save thee, my pretty love!

The kitten sleeps upon the hearth,

The crickets long have ceased their mirth;
There's nothing stirring in the house
Save one wee, hungry, nibbling mouse,
Then why so busy thou?

Nay! start not at that sparkling light;
'Tis but the moon that shines so bright,
On the window pane all wet with rain;
Then little darling, sleep again,

And wake when it is day!

56.-LETTER FROM A LITTLE GIRL

ABOUT HER SQUIRREL.

squirrel mis-chief

bal-us-ters

My dear Aunt,-You ask me to tell you about my squir-rel. I wish you had known the little pet. He would have made you laugh very often. I had him for eight years, and we were all so fond of him. He really had a great deal of sense, as well as fun, packed into his little head. He took great fancies to some people, but some he could not bear. He hated my gov-ern-ess who used to talk German to him, and if she went near him, he began to growl. Sometimes we used to let him run about the house as he pleased. He liked this very much, but we were often sorry afterwards, when we found what mischief he had done.

One of his tricks was this. He climbed up the coats, which hung in the passage, and bit off all the buttons. So when my father put on his great-coat to go out, he could not fast-en it. It was very pretty to see him run up-stairs as hard as he could, and slide down the bal-us-ters just like a merry school boy. But he did delight in mischief. Sometimes he would get at our sugar basin and throw out bit after bit, till, perhaps at the very bottom, he met with a piece to his mind. Then he would jump away and eat it. Once he found the chimney glass of our lamp on a table. He rolled it to the edge, and as it fell and broke into bits on the floor, he looked over and nodded his head, just as if he were laughing at what he had done. Another time he climbed up the window curtains, caught the string that held a bird cage, and bit it through. The cage fell, we jumped up, and there was the squirrel looking down quite pleased at giving us a fright.

57.-LETTER (continued).

effects green-gage de-light des-sert

ef-fects green-gage de-light des-sert

ac-cid-ent wal-nuts pret-ti-ly niece

ac-cid-ent wal-nuts pret-ti-ly niece

My squirrel always came out at dinner time, and was very fond of sitting on the waiting-maid's hand,

and sipping the beer as she took it round the table. But one day he slipt and fell into the jug. When we picked him out, the poor little wet thing seemed quite tipsy. He was so giddy, he did not appear to know where he was, or what he was about. I dried him and put him to bed. He slept off the ef-fects of his ac-cid-ent. But from that day he would not taste a drop of beer or go near the jug.

At des-sert he was always charmed to help himself. He would eat a green-gage or a plum, that is, he would eat part of it, and bring the rest to tuck down my father's neck, as a safe hiding-place. A plate of walnuts was a great delight to him; he would bark and grunt over them with such joy, and then carry them off one by one to hide. He used to put them in all parts of the room, sometimes under the carpet; and then he would pat them down so pret-ti-ly with' his tidy little fore-paws.

I think now I have told you as much about my pet as you will care to hear. Do you not think he was very wise about the beer? I think some people might learn a lesson from him.

I am,

Your affec-tion-ate niece,

FANNY STEWART.