Page:Story of the robins.djvu/171

Rh reasons for our feeding upon them as upon poultry, but we should be very careful to despatch them as quickly as possible.

"Some people are cruel enough to roast lobsters alive, the cries of which, I have been told, are dreadful to hear; and others will flay eels alive, then put them without their skins into a pail of cold water, and afterwards cut them in pieces, and throw them into a frying-pan of boiling fat, where sometimes every separate piece will writhe about in agony: thus each poor fish suffers as many deaths as it is divided into pieces. Now this, Harriet, cannot be right, however authorized by custom; therefore I hope you will never suffer such things to be done in your kitchen when you keep house, but always give orders that your lobsters be put into boiling water, which kills them soon, and that your eels be killed before they are skinned, which may soon be done by laying hold of their heads and tails and giving them a sudden pull, which separates the vertebræ of the back. This is dreadful enough, though little in comparison of what they suffer by the other methods of killing them."

"Oh, mamma!" said Harriet, "you make me even shudder! I do not believe I shall ever desire to eat eels; I shall be ready to make speeches for every