SIMPLE STORIES.
"Be always kind to animals wherever you may be!"
ELSIE AND THE MACAW.
Elsie was growing a big girl, and though she was still in short frocks, she gave herself airs, and had ideas about dress, and sometimes was tempted to argue with her dear Mamma and give her a pert answer. She was, however in high glee just now, because she had been invited by her Aunt Dabblechick to a pic-nic with a lot of other little boys and girls. She made a great fuss about her dress, she studied The Queen, and The Gentlewoman, and other papers devoted to this important subject, and worried her poor Mamma with all sorts of silly suggestions. The costume, however, was at last arranged, and the little goose was cross because her Mamma would not allow her to have a blue feather in her hat. Elsie, like a naughty child, determined that she would, by some means or other, have this feather.
How to obtain one was the difficulty. At last it struck her that the splendid Macaw, a gift from her Uncle, Admiral Sangarorum, brought from Brazil, had some lovely feathers of about the right tint.
Taking a few lumps of sugar with her, she paid a visit to the conservatory where "Lord Macawley," as he was called, swung all day and shrieked. She felt how naughty she was, but her overweening vanity quite stifled her conscience. She scratched the bird's poll, treated him to several lumps of sugar, and, when he was not looking, suddenly jerked one of the finest feathers out of his tail.
"Lord Macawley" screamed furiously, and Elsie was terribly frightened for fear she should be discovered. She, however, ran away with her prize, and carefully fixed it in her hat.
The next morning when she was ready to start, and James was waiting with the pony-chaise to drive her over to her Aunt's, her Mamma, who was gathering flowers in the conservatory, sent for her to see that she looked nice before starting. Very pretty the little girl looked in her peacock blue dress, her snowy frills, her black-silk stockings, and Oxford shoes.
Her hat was trimmed with ribbon to match her dress, and her feather so artfully intertwined, that she hoped her Mamma would not notice it. It certainly would have passed without observation, but, just as Elsie was tripping away, "Lord Macawley" saw her.
He set up a fiendish scream, and then said, "G-r-r! Gr-r-r! Who stole my feather?" over and over again.
Elsie turned scarlet. Mamma removed and inspected the hat, and, the little girl was promptly packed off to bed, where she was left to shed many tears over her folly for the rest of the day.
Mamma keeps the blue feather, which she shows to her little girl whenever she is inclined to be disobedient or vain. The exhibition usually has a magical effect.
