_How a visit to Beastland cured a little boy of cruelty to animals._
This is a story of a little boy who made a visit to Beastland where
all the animals go when they die. The boy’s name was Benjamin, but
everybody called him Benny. He was a cruel little boy, and threw
stones at all the dogs, and cats and birds that he saw. Sometimes
he hurt the poor animals, and often he killed the little birds.
After a while the animals all ran, and the birds flew away when
he came in sight. The dogs would not play with him, but ran under
the house when they saw him coming; the cats climbed up the trees
or over the fence, and the birds flew over into the next yard. “We
will not stay near such a cruel little boy,” they all said.
One day a poor dog passed in front of Benny’s house. The dog was
very tired and hungry, and not knowing Benny he stopped as if he
would ask for a bone or a piece of bread. But Benny picked up a big
rock and threw it at him and broke the poor dog’s leg. Then he ran
away and hid to keep from hearing the poor dog howl with pain.
That night Benny could not sleep. He covered his head up in the
bed clothes, and shut his eyes tight, and put his fingers in his
ears, but he still saw the poor dog and heard his pitiful cries.
After a while, as he lay very still trying to go to sleep, he heard
a scratching at the window sill, and looking up he saw a big dog
climbing in the window.
“What do you want?” he asked.
The dog stood up on his hind legs and said: “I have come to take
you to Beastland.”
Then he took a rope out of a bag he carried, and tied poor Benny
hand and foot. Throwing him across his back he went out of the
window, out of the yard and way off up the side of a mountain. At
last they came to a land where there was nothing but animals and
they were all talking about boys and girls.
The big dog who carried Benny took him to the Court House and
brought him before Judge Lion and a jury of cats and dogs. He was
to be tried for cruelty. There were ever so many witnesses against
poor Benny. All the dogs he had stoned; all the cats he had chased;
all the birds he had killed rose up against him. Finally Judge Lion
said: “Tie a tin can to him and chase him through town.” Then the
big dog tied an old tin can to Benny’s foot, and all the dogs and
animals ran him and ran him, and barked and snapped until he was
chased out of Beastland and right into his little bed. He woke up
with a start and exclaimed:
“My! But that was an awful feeling!” But he was kind to all animals
ever afterwards.