'Permanent Refuge for Homeless Dogs.'
I'll read it to you.
"'At a recent meeting of the Bullion Society for Homeless Dogs, held at the residence of Mrs. Sarah Holden, it was unanimously agreed to change the original name of the organization to Animal Rescue League of Washington, in view of the widened scope of the work. Arrangements were completed for the purchase of a home in the neighborhood of Hyattsville, Md., where a permanent refuge will be established for the care of dogs. It is the intention of the league to remove the home to their new quarters at Hyattsville early in the autumn, where they will keep open house throughout the year.'
"Isn't that a beneficent charity!" she exclaimed, a rapt expression on her unlined face.
"Beneficent fiddlesticks!" returned Mrs. Pennybacker, "If I were called upon to characterize that proceeding with exactness, Maria, I should call it sentimental gush gone to seed. What are they going to save these dogs from? a dependent old age—or a life of shame?"
Like most persons of her calibre Mrs. Van Dorn was deficient in a sense of humor. She missed the satirical note and answered literally, "They are going to provide a home for the homeless and befriend the friendless."
"It is Christlike!" exclaimed Mrs. Van Dorn, with more enthusiasm than she usually exhibited. "Why, the officers elected—I didn't read you their names—are away up in society."
"It is certainly Christlike to befriend the friendless," returned Mrs. Pennybacker, ignoring the social status of the officers elected—"but it strikes me there needs to be a modicum of sense displayed in the choice of subjects. As I remember it, Christ always gave the preference to those that do not perish like the beasts. He came looking after the lost sheep of the house of Israel, it is true, but they were sheep with souls. I don't seem to remember that he spent much time hunting up stray dogs. Indeed, the only case I recall in which He paid attention to animals at all was in the Gadarene country, and that was rather disastrous to the animals. You remember he sacrificed a whole herd of swine (two thousand in number, Mark says) to save the reason of one poor suffering lunatic. I think that was about the right proportion. To my mind it shows the relative importance he attaches to the two.... How Christian women can walk around here in the southwest quarter of Washington, and then give their energies to rescuing dogs is more than I can understand!"
When she had got a block or so away from the house she opened her rather tightly set lips to remark to herself,