When we were children, my brother and I had a little brown bantam hen, and we were very fond of her. She once sat on a duck egg and a little duck was hatched after a short time. The bantam was so proud of her baby duck and would walk about the yard with “Stella”—for that was the name we gave the duck.
“Bantie” seemed quite puzzled when her duck would swim in the little tub we filled with water, but she would wait patiently until the duck was finished. As “Stella” grew older she became much larger than the bantam hen, but the little mother would peck the other chickens to get food for the duck. Finally my father killed the duck, but the bantam tried to stop him by flying up at him. Needless to say, we didn’t enjoy our duck dinner for we were thinking of the two pets!
It is lovely to see affection among God’s little creatures, but more wonderful to see love to one another among God’s children.
ML 01/10/1954