WHEN I was about six years old, one morning going to school, a ground squirrel ran into his hole in the road before me, as they like to dig holes in some open place, where they can put out their head to see if any danger is near. I thought, now I will have fine fun. As there was a stream of water just at hand, I determined to pour water into the hole till it should be full, and force the little animal up so that I might kill it. I was soon pouring water in on the poor squirrel. I could hear it struggle to get up, and said, “Ah, my fellow, I will soon have you out now.”
Just then I heard a voice behind me. “Well, my boy, what have you got in there?” I turned and saw one of my neighbors, a good old man with long white locks, that had seen sixty winters. “Why,” said I, “I have a ground squirrel in here, and am going to drown him out.”
Said he “Jonathan, when I was a little boy, more than fifty years ago, I was engaged, one day, just as you are, drowning a ground squirrel; and an old man like me came along and said to me, ‘You are a little boy; now, if you were down in a narrow hole like that, and I should come along and pour water down on you to drown you, would not you think I was cruel? God made that little squirrel, and life is as sweet to it as to you. Why will you torture to death a little innocent creature that God has made?’” He said, “I have never forgotten that, and never shall. I never have killed any harmless creature for fun since. Now, my dear boy, I want you to remember this while you live, and when tempted to kill any poor little animal or bird, think of this; and mind, God don’t allow us to kill His pretty little creatures for fun.”
More than forty years have since passed, and I never forgot what the good man said, nor have I ever killed the least animal for fun since. Now you see it is ninety years since this advice was first given, and it has not lost its influence yet: how many little creatures it has saved from being tortured to death, I cannot tell, but I have no doubt. a great number, and I believe my whole life has been influenced by it.
Now I want all the dear little boys, when they read this, to keep it in mind; and when they see pretty birds or harmless animals playing, or hunting food, not to hurt them. God made them, and He never intended them to be killed for fun. The Bible says, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”
ML 05/27/1906