THE CRUELTIES OF THE CATTLE-TRAIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 282, 27 September 1878, Page 9

THE CRUELTIES OF THE CATTLE-TRAIN.

The following incident was related some years ngo by Miss L. M. AJcott the well-known author. We give the story in her own words, as published at the time :—: — "Somewhere above Fitchburg, as we stopped for twenty minute 3 at a station, I amused myself by looking out of a window at a watertali which came tumbing over the rocks and spread into a wide pool, tnat flowed up to the railway. Close by stood a cattle-train : and the mournful sounds that came from it touched my heart. Full in the hot sun stood the cars, and every crevice of room between the bars across the doorways was filled with pathetic noses, sniffing eagerly at the sultry gusts that blew by, with now and tben a fresher breath from the pool that lay dimpling before them, ilow they must have suffered, in sight of water, with the cool dash of m uth! Bg them> aM nOt a dr ° P to Wet their P ool ' P arched ««. " ? h< ii Catt l e lowed dismall y. and the sheep tumbled one over the other, _ m tbeir frantic attempts to reach the blessed air, bleating so plaintively the while, that I was tempted to get out and see what I could do for them. But the time wab nearly up ; and while I hesitated, two little girls appeared, and did the kind deed better than I could have done it. ". I could not hear what they said ; but, as they worked away bo heartily, their little tanned faces grew lovely to me in spite of tneir old nats, their bare feet, and their shabby gowns. One pulled off her apron, spread it on the grass, and, emptying upon it the berries from iier pail, ran to the pool and returned with it dripping, to hold it up to the suffering sheep, who stretched their tongues gratefully to meet it, and iapped the precious water with an eagerness that made little oarcroot s task a hard one. Kom/'i^V 0 and i r ? she / an > nevei> tired . though the small pail was h™ fPi 7P i 7 ' "*? h f* friend meaDwb ile P^led Rreat handfuls of £jX Wa lert1 crtO T hr °\ On TtliepOol'T tliepOol ' dusty noses appealing to her chiSS, W J COuld have told those tenderhearted SS wt + beautiful their compassion made that hot, noisy place, sTstei^P^^f » P1C < ffee^ c took aWay With me of tbose two little 088641110 * 116 merciM .ft* t^yshall obtain