Paulina going to spend the afternoon with her little cousins, arrived at
their door at the very instant that they were dragging out a poor little
dog, once so great a favourite that it was fed with every kind of
nicety, and reposed, when it was inclined to sleep, on a beautiful silk
cushion.
"What are you going to do with poor Fido?" inquired Paulina.
"Oh, the nasty thing!" replied her cousin Emily. "Pray look how ugly it
is grown--I would not keep it in the house on any account--I am going to
give it to those boys you see at the gate: I do not care what they do
with it: my brother Charles has given me a most beautiful little
creature--come in, and I will shew it to you."
"Stop, stop, for pity's sake!" exclaimed Paulina, "Pray do not give poor
Fido to those boys, to be worried and tormented to death; let me have
him; I will carry him home to my hospital, and will take care of him as
long as he lives."
Fido had unfortunately strolled into the kitchen (where certainly
neither young ladies nor their dogs can have any business), when the
cook was very busy in getting ready for dinner, and (I hope without
intending such a piece of cruelty) she had thrown a quantity of boiling
water over the poor little creature's head and back, and scalded him in
so terrible a manner, that no one thought he could have lived through
the day.
Emily was so angry with the cook, and shed so many tears when she beheld
the agony of her favourite, that one would have thought she had the best
heart in the world, and that she had a very great regard for it; but as
soon as it was recovered, and she saw it had lost one eye, and that all
the side of its head, and its whole back, was without hair, she could
not bear the sight of it: it was turned out of the parlour, and kicked
about by every body, glad to pick up any bone it could meet with, and
to sleep in a corner on straw, instead of the silk cushion it had been
accustomed to; and, at length, had not Paulina arrived in time to save
it, would have been given to half a dozen unfeeling boys, who would soon
have destroyed it.
Paulina was very little pleased with her cousin Emily on this occasion,
for her own disposition was very different: she was so humane, so kind
to every body and every creature in distress, that she was beloved by
all who knew her; she had quite a little hospital of sick and lame
animals and birds: a dog, which had had its leg broken by being caught
in a gin; a cat with one ear, the other having been bitten off by a
large mastiff; and a blind squirrel; she had a little goldfinch in a
cage, which had had its wings torn off by a cat, and as it could no
longer fly down from its perch to drink, and return when it liked, she
had contrived a little ladder, on which it could hop up and down without
any difficulty; a blackbird, almost frozen to death, which she had
picked up in the snow, but which never recovered the use of one of its
legs, sung very merrily, however, in its cage, for it was well fed and
taken care of; and one or two blind cocks, which she had bought from
boys who had been fighting them, and were going to throw at them, by way
of _finishing the fun_ (as they called it); and several lame hens,
become so by some accident or other, lived comfortably in her little
poultry-yard, for she took care to feed all her pensioners herself, and
never trusted the care of them to any other person.
Paulina had great pleasure in procuring every comfort she could for her
poor animals; and her papa and mamma, to encourage her kind and humane
disposition, increased her pocket-money, that she might be able to
purchase barley for her poultry, and seed for her birds: her brothers
also, who were at school, often sent her presents for that purpose. As
she grew up, her humanity was shewn to her fellow-creatures in distress,
as much as it had been in her childhood to the dumb creation; and as God
had given her the means of doing good, she freely indulged herself in
acts of kindness, for which she received a thousand thanks and blessings
wherever she appeared: she was beloved by all her neighbours, both
poor and rich, every thing prospered with her, and she was happy and
contented, as she deserved to be.