Henry D. Thoreau, a famous man who lived for some time in a little cabin in the woods near Concord, Massachusetts, was noted for his kindness to all God’s harmless creatures.
It is said that even the fishes came into his hand when he dipped it into the stream.
The little mice would come and playfully eat from his fingers, and the very moles paid him friendly visits.
Sparrows alighted on his shoulders when he called them; phœbe birds built their nests in his shed; and the wild partridge with her brood, came and fed quietly beneath his window, as he sat and looked at them.
After he had been two or three months in the woods the wild birds ceased to be afraid of him, and would come and perch on his shoulder, and sometimes on his spade when he was digging.—George T. Angell.