Are spent amang the lasses, O.”
“He seems to be very fond of the lasses, but has nothing to say of the lads,” laughed Walter.
“And they, it seems, can’t find him,” said Edward, as the three young men were seen returning toward the house. “Well, lads, what success?” he called to them.
“None as yet,” replied Harold, “but we are not quite in despair. Surely we heard his voice a moment since, nearer the house than when he gave us his Thimble song.”
“Yes, it seemed to me to come from the top of that magnolia, and he must be very quick in his movements if he has got down from it already.”
“What you doing? what you ’bout?” came just at that instant in a loud, harsh scream, apparently from the same tree-top. “Breakfast-time. Polly wants a cracker. Polly wants a cup of coffee.”
The three young men stepped close to the tree and gazed upward among its branches.
“The parrot again!” exclaimed Croly. “Do you see her, boys?”
“Not I,” replied Herbert, “but it is quite dark up there where the branches and leaves are so thick.”