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                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:

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  TOMMY SMITH’S ANIMALS




   BY THE SAME AUTHOR

  TOMMY SMITH’S OTHER ANIMALS
  JACK’S INSECTS

[Illustration: “_HE_ MAY HAVE FOUND _ANOTHER_ HARE”]




                             TOMMY SMITH’S
                                ANIMALS

                                  BY
                             EDMUND SELOUS

                      WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY
                               G. W. ORD

                            TWELFTH EDITION

                          METHUEN & CO. LTD.
                         36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
                                LONDON

              _First Published_          _October_ _1899_
              _Second Edition_          _December_ _1900_
              _Third Edition_           _December_ _1902_
              _Fourth Edition_         _September_ _1905_
              _Fifth Edition_              _April_ _1906_
              _Sixth Edition_          _September_ _1906_
              _Seventh Edition_          _January_ _1907_
              _Eighth Edition_             _April_ _1907_
              _Ninth Edition_           _November_ _1907_
              _Tenth Edition_                _May_ _1908_
              _Eleventh Edition_       _September_ _1909_
              _Twelfth Edition_        _September_ _1912_




                               CONTENTS


              CHAPTER                               PAGE

                  I. THE MEETING                       1

                 II. THE FROG AND THE TOAD            11

                III. THE ROOK                         25

                 IV. THE RAT                          39

                  V. THE HARE                         54

                 VI. THE GRASS-SNAKE AND ADDER        74

                VII. THE PEEWIT                       96

               VIII. THE MOLE                        115

                 IX. THE WOODPIGEON                  143

                  X. THE SQUIRREL                    166

                 XI. THE BARN-OWL                    187

                XII. THE LEAVE-TAKING                205




                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                            PAGE

      “HE MAY HAVE FOUND ANOTHER HARE”            _Frontispiece_

      “THAT IS WHY I AM SO WISE”                               9

      “I SHALL KEEP AWAKE TILL THE RAT COMES”                 39

      PAT, PAT, PAT. “DO YOU HEAR?”                           41

      “BITE HIM!”                                             51

      “ALL HAPPY (EXCEPT THE HARE)”                           63

      “THERE ARE THREE FROGS IN MY STOMACH AT THIS MOMENT”    79

      “WE MOLES ARE VERY HEROIC”                             141




                         TOMMY SMITH’S ANIMALS




CHAPTER I.

THE MEETING

  “_The owl calls a meeting, and has an idea:
  They all think it good, though it SOUNDS rather queer._”


THERE was once a little boy, named Tommy Smith, who was very cruel to
animals, because nobody had taught him that it was wrong to be so. He
would throw stones at the birds as they sat in the trees or hedges; and
if he did not hit them, that was only because they were too quick for
him, and flew away as soon as they saw the stone coming. But he always
_meant_ to hit them—yes, and to kill them too,—which made it every
bit as bad as if he really had killed them. Then, if he saw a rat, he
would make his dog run after it, and if the poor thing tried to escape
by running down a hole, he and the dog together would dig it out, and
then the dog would bite it with his sharp teeth until it was quite
dead. It never seemed to occur to this boy that the poor rat had done
_him_ no harm, and that it might be the father or mother of some little
baby rats, who would now die of hunger. Even if the rat got away, he
would whip the dog for not catching it, yet the dog had done his best;
for, of course, dogs must do what their masters tell them, and cannot
know any better. It was just the same with hares or rabbits, squirrels,
rooks, or partridges. Indeed, this boy could not see any animal playing
about, and doing no harm, without trying to frighten it or to hurt it.

When the spring came, and the birds began to build their nests, and to
lay their pretty eggs in them, then it is dreadful to think how cruel
this Tommy Smith was. He would look about amongst the trees and bushes,
and when he had found a nest, he would take all the eggs that were in
it, and not leave even one for the poor mother bird to sit on when she
came back. Indeed, he would often tear down the nest too, after he had
taken the eggs. Perhaps you will wonder what he did with these eggs.
Well