"Yes, sir; I shall be most happy to tell you about greedy Dick," said Polly. "But I should like to see the new parrot. Cockatoo there says he is so beautiful that we are thrown quite into the shade, and he has been mourning ever since."
"Well, at present I really cannot let you see him," said Herbert. "He says such naughty words, that I am forced to keep him in a room by himself; but if you like, I can show you a picture of him, or of some birds like him in their native woods." Here Herbert ran off for his book on natural history; and while he was gone, Polly entertained Charley as well as she could till Herbert's return. Polly admired the picture very much; but said, though his plumage was very fine, no doubt, she did not like the expression of his face—though she dared say it was not a good likeness. She said this out of civility, but all the time she thought the "Great Mogul" a most unlovable-looking bird, and she was very glad to find herself a gray parrot instead.
"And now, Polly, since I have shown you the picture," said Herbert, "tell us about greedy Dick."
"It is a sad story, Master Herbert," said Polly, shaking her head and moving about her perch very slowly. "Oh dear!—oh dear!" she continued in English; "I'm really quite—oh fie! fie!" Then in her own language she went on to say: "Dick came to stay with a lady I had the pleasure of residing with, after I left my old friend who had the maid. I was really a fine-looking bird at that time;" and here Polly flounced out her feathers coquettishly, as if she were still a young bird. "I did like living there; no servants ever were allowed to wait upon me, for the young ladies of the house were so fond of me they fed me with their own fair hands. Dick was their nephew, and a nice-looking boy,—clever, too,—very; but he had one bad habit that grieved his aunts very much. At all his meals he would keep stuffing and stuffing himself, just like a little pig feeding for market. He always chose the daintiest dishes, and would look so ill-natured if any of his aunts happened to say, 'Why, Dick, you will die of apoplexy; you have been helped to that pudding three times.'
"He never knew when to stop, and oh dear! though he was a good-looking boy enough, how ugly he did look when he was eating! His Aunt Mary, and my favourite mistress, used to say so often, 'Greedy Dick,' that I very soon picked up the words; and when I saw him slipping into the press to steal the sugar, I would call out—'Oh fie! fie!—who stole the sugar?' His aunts used to tell him that even a bird had more sense, and used to beg him to take an example from me; for I did not gobble up everything I got at once, but put it in my tin dish till I was hungry. Ah! Master Dick knew that very well indeed; and many a time had he slipped up and stolen my piece of sweet-cake, or other dainty.
"One day his Aunt Mary came to my perch and said, 'Come now, Polly; you shall have this nice piece of sugar if you will say 'Pretty Mary.' I had tried hard for ever so long to say it, but somehow my tongue would not twist out the exact words. But I was not pleased with Miss Mary for asking me to say it for a bribe; she ought to have known me better, I thought, and I sat quite silent, determined not even to say 'Pretty Polly.'
"'Oh now, Polly, that is naughty!' she said, seeing my sulky looks. 'Well, you shall have it if you take it out of my mouth.'
PRETTY MARY. Page [88].
"Of course I could not object to that," said Polly with a laugh; "So I stepped on to her finger as desired, and took the bit of sugar from her pretty red lips, and put it into my tin dish. Then, to show her I was grateful for her kindness, I cried out, 'Mary! pretty Mary!' and she was so pleased, she wanted me to have another piece of sugar as a reward; but I would not have it. No; I made my little speeches for love, and not for sugar.