"What did he say?" he demanded of Dinah.
"Oh, I couldn't, sir! I really couldn't!"
"I meant to warn you," interposed Cai again. "There's a—a screw loose somewhere in that bird. Didn't I tell you only the night before last that Mrs Bowldler couldn't get along with him?"
"You did," admitted 'Bias, his tone ominously calm. "But you didn' specify: not when I told you I was goin' to bring the bird up here to Rilla."
"No, I didn': for, in the first place, I couldn', not knowin' what language the bird used."
He would have said more, but 'Bias turned roughly from him to demand of the women—
"Well, what did he say? . . . Did he say it in your hearin', ma'am?"
"Ahem!—er—partially so," owned Mrs Bosenna.
"It's no use you're askin' what he said," added Dinah; "for no decent woman could tell it. And, what's more, the mistress is takin' her breakfast here in the kitchen because she durstn't go nigh the parlour."
"And I got that bird off a missionary! A decenter speakin' parrot I've never known, so far as my experience goes—and I've known a good few."