“Leo, come here! good fellow! Down, sir! Leo, Leo! Hurrah, boys; what fun!”
As it was near the time for his master’s return, the dog had been more readily deceived by the parrot’s call, and had run rapidly toward the house, when he perceived that he had been made a fool of, as he often had been before.
A few hours later, they were talking it over in the library, when Mr. Lee said he thought he had read an incident very similar.
Minnie joyfully clapped her hands, while her father took down the book, and read,—
“A parrot belonging to a gentleman in Boston was once sunning himself in his cage, at the door of a shop. Seeing a dog in the distance, he began to whistle, when the animal, imagining it to be the call of his master, ran swiftly toward the house.
“At this moment, the bird exclaimed, ‘Get out, you brute!’ when the astonished dog hastily retreated, leaving the parrot laughing and enjoying the joke.”
“That reminds me,” added Mrs. Lee, “of a story a lady once told me of a parrot she owned, and which was really a wonderfully intelligent bird. A new family moved into the neighborhood, consisting, among others, of two young ladies, who always dressed very gayly.
“Polly had a bad habit of making remarks upon the passers by, as she hung in her cage overlooking the main street. If, as was sometimes the case, persons engaged in conversation stopped near the house, they would often be startled by the cry,—
“‘Go home, now! Want to quarrel?’
“But when she saw ladies dressed fashionably, she gave utterance to a most contemptuous laugh, which would have been insult enough by itself; but she often accompanied it by the words,—