_Kindness to animals begets a feeling of care and protection for
the helpless and dependent._
Henry was a little boy who lived on a big place near town. There
were plenty of trees in his yard and the birds were always flying
round, but there were no squirrels. One day Henry said to his
cousin Ed who lived in town:
“Cousin Ed, I wish you would get me two little squirrels.”
“All right, Henry, I will try to get them, but you will have to
take good care of them.” Henry promised, and in a few days cousin
Ed told him a man had promised to get the squirrels.
Henry was very busy now getting the squirrels’ home ready. He built
it out of an old box, fixed it so that no rain could get in, and
cut a hole in the side so that the squirrels could go in and out.
By the time the box was ready the squirrels came--two little baby
squirrels, just old enough to take care of themselves.
Henry was a very happy little boy. He put the squirrel house high
up in a tree in the yard, and plenty of nuts close by so that
the squirrels could get them. He took care not to frighten the
squirrels, and never tried to catch them until they were quite
tame.
In about a week’s time they knew his voice, and would climb down
the tree to take a nut from his hand and then scamper back up to
the squirrel home and hide it inside. Soon they were tame enough to
come inside the house and play around. They would climb on Henry’s
shoulders and down into his pockets to hunt for nuts.
One day Henry’s grandfather came to dinner and sat in a big chair
on the porch. There was a bowl of nuts on the table, and Henry
called “Jack” and “Jill”--for those were the squirrels’ names.
They came running and saw the nuts. They looked at grandfather.
They must have thought he was a tree, for they began to hide nuts
all over him. They ran behind him and into his pockets which they
almost filled with nuts. Then grandfather got up and the nuts
scattered in every direction, while every one laughed to see how
astonished Jack and Jill were to see their tree walk off that way.
The next year out came four little baby squirrels from the squirrel
house, and they went to live in the trees in the yard. And in a few
years there were squirrels everywhere, running over the trees and
about the yard, and people often came to see them and play with
them.
Jack and Jill still live in the old home, but they certainly have a
yard full of children.