The very sight of the plenty around them should have made the inhabitants kind and gentle , and ready to show their gratitude to Providence by doing good to their fellow-creatures . But , we are sorry to say , the people of this lovely village were not worthy to dwell in a spot on which Heaven had smiled so beneficently . They were a very selfish and hard-hearted people , and had no pity for the poor , nor sympathy with the homeless . They would only have laughed , had anybody told them that human beings owe a debt of love to one another , because there is no other method of paying the debt of love and care which all of us owe to Providence . You will hardly believe what I am going to tell you . These naughty people taught their children to be no better than themselves , and used to clap their hands , by way of encouragement , when they saw the little boys and girls run after some poor stranger , shouting at his heels , and pelting hum with stones . They kept large and fierce dogs , and whenever a traveller ventured to show himself in the village street , this pack of disagreeable curs scampered to meet him , barking , snarling , and showing their teeth . Then they would seize him by his leg , or by his clothes , just as it happened ; and if he were ragged when he came , he was generally a pitiable object before he had time to run away . This was a very terrible thing to poor travellers , as you may suppose , especially when they chanced to be sick , or feeble , or lame , or old . Such persons -LRB- if they once knew how badly these unkind people , and their unkind children and curs , were in the habit of behaving -RRB- would go miles and miles out of their way , rather than try to pass through the village again . What made the matter seem worse , if possible , was that when rich persons came in their chariots , or riding on beautiful horses , with their servants in rich liveries attending on them , nobody could be more civil and obsequious than the inhabitants of the village . They would take off their hats , and make the humblest bows you ever saw . If the children were rude , they were pretty certain to get their ears boxed ; and as for the dogs , if a single cur in the pack presumed to yelp , his master instantly beat him with a club , and tied him up without any supper . This would have been all very well , only it proved that the villagers cared much about the money that a stranger had in his pocket , and nothing whatever for the human soul , which lives equally in the beggar and the prince . So now you can understand why old Philemon spoke so sorrowfully , when he heard the shouts of the children and the barking of the dogs , at the farther extremity of the village street . There was a confused din , which lasted a good while , and seemed to pass quite through the breadth of the valley . `` I never heard the dogs so loud ! '' observed the good old man . `` Nor the children so rude ! '' answered his good old wife .
They sat shaking their heads , one to another , while the noise came nearer and nearer ; until , XXXXX the foot of the little eminence on which their cottage stood , they saw two travellers approaching on foot .
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