ion]

CHAPTER VI.

BIRDS.

Having now, I think, mentioned all the "four-footed beasts" about which
I had any thing particular to say, I will pass on to another and still
more beautiful portion of God's handy-work--the birds. The account of
their creation is thus given: "And God said, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly
above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great
whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought
forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his
kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be
fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl
multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth
day." The beasts were not made until the sixth day; so that, if I had
been writing a history of the creation, I should have put the birds and
fishes first. Notice these expressions, "God saw that it was good; and
God blessed them." Every thing when it came from his glorious hand was
very good; and man was the only being who became bad by his own fault,
despised the blessing, and brought the curse on himself, with all its
sad consequences to the whole earth and every creature. "God blessed
them;" and what right have we to make their little lives miserable? This
thought has often come over me when I have seen any cruel thing done.
God said, that the fowl were to "fly above the earth, in the open
firmament of heaven;" but he has made some fowls that are very useful to
man, willing to stay upon the earth. If hens and ducks were to lay their
eggs in high trees, and among rocks, as many birds do, we should get
very few of them; and as they lay many more than they can hatch, it
would be a great and wasteful loss. By this we are sure that poultry was
intended for our use; and if you take care not to frighten or tease
them, you may bring up chickens to be as tame and familiar as dogs or
cats. I remember a droll proof of this. Once, out of a great many fowls,
belonging to a dear friend in whose house I lived, there was only one
that would not be friends with me. She was a fine old speckled black and
white hen, very wild; and her running away from me vexed me; for I
cannot bear that any one of God's creatures should think I would be so
cruel as to hurt it. Well, I set myself to wheedle this hen into being
on better terms; taking crumbs to h