I must give you another instance, still more curious than the former, of
friendship between two animals.
A number of rough boys in Liverpool had stoned a cat, and dragged it
through a pool of water, no one of the many passers-by attempting to
stop them; when a dog coming up was moved with pity and indignation at
the brutal proceedings, which ought to have induced the human beings who
witnessed it to interfere. Barking furiously, he rushed in among the
boys, and then carried off the ill-used cat in his mouth, bleeding, and
almost senseless, to his kennel at the Talbot Inn, to which he belonged.
He there laid it on the straw, licked it till it was clean, and then
stretched himself on it, as if to impart to it some of his own warmth.
On its beginning to revive, he set out to obtain food for it, when the
people of the inn, noticing his behaviour, gave his patient some warm
milk.
Some days passed before the cat recovered, and during the whole time the
dog never remitted in his attentions to it. The cat, in return,
exhibited the warmest gratitude to the dog, and for many years
afterwards they were seen going about the streets of Liverpool together.
Do you not blush for human nature when you hear of boys exhibiting less
compassion than a dog? Be watchful that you never have cause to blush
for yourself.