se them; yet you have
taken no pains to secure your favourite from the danger; on the
contrary, by rendering him tame, and accustoming him to be fed, you have
exposed him to a violent death, which he would probably have avoided had
he remained wild. Would it not then be just, and more reasonable, to
endeavour to teach the cat that she must no longer prey upon little
birds, than to put her to death for what you have never taught her was
an offence?

_Tommy._--But is that possible?

_Mr Barlow._--Very possible, I should imagine; but we may at least try
the experiment.

_Tommy._--But why should such a mischievous creature live at all?

_Mr Barlow._--Because, if you destroy every creature that preys upon
others, you would perhaps leave few alive.

_Tommy._--Surely, sir, the poor bird which that naughty cat has killed,
was never guilty of such a cruelty.

_Mr Barlow._--I will not answer for that. Let us observe what they live
upon in the fields; we shall then be able to give a better account.

Mr Barlow then went to the window and desired Tommy to come to him, and
observe a robin which was then hopping upon the grass with something in
its mouth, and asked him what he thought it was.

_Tommy._--I protest, sir, it is a large worm. And now he has swallowed
it! I should never have thought that such a pretty bird could have been
so cruel.

_Mr Barlow._--Do you imagine that the bird is conscious of all that is
suffered by the insect?

_Tommy._--No, sir.

_Mr Barlow._--In him, then, it is not the same cruelty which it would be
in you, who are endowed with reason and reflection. Nature has given him
a propensity for animal food, which he obeys in the same manner as the
sheep and ox when they feed upon grass, or as the ass when he browses
upon the furze or thistles.

_Tommy._--Why, then, perhaps the cat did not know the cruelty she was
guilty of in tearing that poor bird to pieces?

_Mr Barlow._--No more than the bird we have just seen is conscious of
his cruelty to the insect. The natural food of cats consists in rats,
mice, birds, and such small animals as they can seize by violence or
catch by craft. It was impossible she should know the value you set upon
your bird, and therefore she had no more intention of offending you than
had she caught a mouse.

_Tommy._--But if that is the case, should I have another tame bird, she
would kill it as she has done this poor fellow.

_Mr Barlow._--That, perhaps, may be prev