book2

THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 135
them, the children used to carry them grass of
various kinds, particularly clover and sorrel.
did the hens good, but it did the children a still
greater good, by contributing to the happiness
even of fowls.
Some might say, just at this point, that it
would have done the children at
It
Mr. Williams's
still more good had they expended the same
amount
of time on some family of poor children.
This remark would probably be just ;
but where
were the poor children ? They were not, as it
happened, in their immediate neighborhood. At
least there were none so near that they could run
and see them, at odd moments, between their
lessons, labor-tasks, &c. What, then, could they
do better than to spend their odd moments on the
chickens ?