Mary’s little lamb was not the only animal that ever went to school. For two years “Pat,” a handsome collie, was a faithful attendant at a grade school in W.
But soon after the opening of school in the fall, Pat quit his classes, for what he considered the best of reasons, and, it is said, he doesn’t care who knows it.
“Pat” started to school about two years before this, when he was just a year old. He got into the habit of following his youthful master, Bill, to school and into the classroom—much to the despair, at first, of the faculty and to the delight of the school children.
His good collie breeding, however, stood him in good stead, and before long “Pat” was just naturally taken for granted around the school. He would follow Bill to school in the morning, romp with him and the other boys at recess, go home with him for lunch, return with him for the afternoon session, and then go home again at 3 o’clock like the rest of the bunch.
“Pat” knew how to play hide-and-seek better than most of the boys, thanks to his canine sense of detection, and he could catch a ball without a fumble. When the bell rang, he got in line and marched into the school alongside Bill, and if he felt thirsty he went straight to the drinking fountain, stood on his hind legs, and lapped the water down in approved dog fashion.
His manner of drinking, however, did not exactly coincide with the school health regulations, and finally he was given a special pan at the foot of the fountain.
After two years when the fall school term opened, Bill and “Pat” parted company. Bill had graduated to the ranks of high-school students, and taken up studies at the Tech High School in another part of the city. But “Pat” resumed his old place in line at the B. School. Each day he hoped that Bill would repent and come back to B. instead of wasting his time at Tech, where they have so many rules and regulations and so many big boys, that a dog would not feel comforable there.
But Bill did not come back, and so, after a month’s fruitless waiting, hoping and watching, “Pat” quit school. Without his young master there, it had lost its chief interest and charm. Dogs know when their friends desert them.
Dear children, may we not learn a lesson from this devoted dog, who wanted to be near his master at all times? If we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our as our own blessed Master and Lord, He who is equal with God, His eternal Son, the Creator of all think Sustainer of all things, humbled Himself, came into this wicked world, as poor man, and has shown His great unbounded love to us, went to Calvary’s Cross, took upon Himself the punishment of God against our many sins to save us for Himself, died for us, and is now in the glory, waiting I have us with Himself both now and for all eternity.
If we know Him as our blessed Saviour, we will want to go when. He would have us to go, as long H we are still in this world.
We will not want to go where He would not go, or make those our friends who hate our blessed Lord, and do not want His company. The Lord feels it if we desert Him for the world.
ML 05/19/1946