Small Things

Rex sat in the living room and pouted while his little sister played on the front porch with her new kitten. If Lyra can have a kitten, I don't see why I can't have a puppy! he thought angrily.

"Rex," said Dad when Rex complained about it later that day, "you don't have any excuse for acting the way you do. You had the same chance to have a puppy as Lyra did to have a kitten. If you had taken good care of your goldfish, we would have allowed you to get a puppy. But you didn't take care of your fish--you never cleaned its bowl or fed it. Lyra had to take over and do your work as well as hers."

"But I don't like goldfish anymore!" wailed Rex.

"Well, you should have thought of that before bringing it home from the school carnival. When you bring things home--especially living things--you have to take care of them. If we can't trust you to take care of something small that you're responsible for, how can we expect you to care for something bigger and more complicated, like a do