No one had seen Hans for a couple of days.
"Not since he did that brutal thing, you know," he said.
"What brutal thing ?" It was Satan that asked.
"Well, he is always clubbing his dog, which is a good dog, and his only friend, and is faithful, and loves him, and does no one any harm; and two days ago he was at it again, just for nothing--just for pleasure--and the dog was howling and begging, and Theodor and I begged, too, but he threatened us, and struck the dog again with all his might and knocked one of his eyes out, and he said to us, 'There, I hope you are satisfied now; that's what you have got for him by your damned meddling'-- and he laughed, the heartless brute." Seppi's voice trembled with pity and anger.

I guessed what Satan would say, and he said it.
"There is that misused word again--that shabby slander.

Brutes do not act like that, but only men." "Well, it was inhuman, anyway." "No, it wasn't, Seppi; it was human--quite distinctly human.

It is not pleasant to hear you libel the higher animals by attributing to them dispositions which they are free from, and which are found nowhere but in the human heart.

None of the higher animals is tainted with the disease called the Moral Sense.