Gateway to the Classics: The Way of the Green Pastures by E. Hershey Sneath
 
The Way of the Green Pastures by  E. Hershey Sneath

A Kind Girl

One day a little girl was out in the fields watching a man with his sheep.

"Why have you left your dog at home?" she asked.

The man said: "My dog can never help me with the sheep again. A cruel boy threw a stone at him and broke one of his legs. I shall kill him to-night to but him out of his pain."

The little girl was very sad when she heard this. She did not say anything to the man, but went to his louse. There she found the dog lying on the floor.

At first the dog would not let the girl come near him. But she was kind and gentle, and at last he let her look at his leg.

She found that it was much hurt, but not broken. She bathed the leg with hot water and bound it up. After a while she saw the man coming home to kill the dog. He loved his dog, but he knew it was better to kill an animal than to let it live in paid.

The little girl ran to him and said: "Your dog's leg is not broken. I have bound it up. Do not kill him. I think he will be quite well in a few days."

The next morning she went to see the dog again. This time he came to her at once, for he knew that she was his friend; and again she bathed his leg and bound it up.

In a few days he was well enough to go out again into the fields and help take care of the sheep.

After that, whenever the dog saw her, he ran to meet her and jumped about to show how glad he was. If a clog could speak, he would have thanked her for being so kind to him.

The man said he could never thank her enough. But for her he would have lost the best dog he ever had.

This kind and helpful little girl grew to be a kind and helpful woman. She left her home and went far away to a country where a great war was going on.

She took care of the sick and wounded soldiers, and saved many lives. Her name was Florence Nightingale.

—Selected.

Even a child maketh himself known by his doings.

—Proverbs xx. 11.


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