liberty. I
have seen him persuade other boys to break their traps, or to let the
poor frightened captives go: and I have seen him clap his hands with joy
as they spread out their pretty wings, and flew "above the earth, in the
open firmament of heaven," as they were made to do; but I do not believe
that a whole pocket full of silver and gold would have tempted Jack to
catch and sell a bird. Indeed, I am sure it would not; for he knew that
neither silver nor gold, nor any thing that is to be bought with them,
would make a person's heart feel happy; and that the commission of a sin
would make him feel very unhappy; for nothing was so dreadful to Jack as
the idea of offending his gracious God, or grieving the Holy Spirit,
who dwells in the heart of every true believer. Now, perhaps, you will
say, "I would not catch and sell birds to put money in my own pocket;
but may I not do it to earn a little for those who really want it?" But
robbing is not earning. If you catch a bird, or a fish, not belonging to
another person, to kill and eat it, or to sell or to give it to others
for food, you do what God has permitted; and if it is done for this
purpose, and not for sport, nobody can blame you. But, though the Lord
has given you the bodies of his creatures for food, he has never given
you their natural liberty, either for your amusement or profit.

As for keeping birds in a cage to sing, if you look at the hundred and
fourth Psalm, you will find that they were made to "sing among the
branches." Go into the fields, and listen to their happy little songs of
liberty, and take from them a lesson of thankful joy: or, if you want
them at home, put crumbs and grains of corn on the windows, and they
will learn to come and pick them up, and thank you with their merry
notes. Only do not be so mean and treacherous as to draw a snare or
close a trap over the poor things when they come, as they think, to be
fed by your bounty. People who love music so well as to make an innocent
creature miserable that they may enjoy its songs will wish, some day,
that they had been born deaf.

But there is one thing that I am sorry to see many boys doing every
spring, and which they cannot defend by any such excuses. I often wonder
who was the first to begin such a disgraceful custom, the most cruel,
senseless, and babyish piece of folly: I mean what is called
bird-nesting. God said to the creatures, "Be fruitful and
multiply,"--"let fowl multiply in the e