‘You will see,’ said Michel, ‘the parrots are coming.’
‘Great trade in plaster, salt, wood—taken by English in 1346—retaken by the French &c., &c.—never mind the date—That is all, Michel.’
‘What! Your dictionary never says that the arararanna, otherwise called the blue macaw, produces young at Caen?’
‘No, Michel, it does not say that here.’
‘What a dictionary! Just wait till I fetch you mine and you will see.’
Michel returned in a few minutes with his book of Natural History.
‘You will soon see, sir,’ he said, opening his dictionary in his turn. ‘Parrot—here it is—parrots are monogamous.’
‘As you know Latin, Michel, of course you know what monogamous means.’
‘That means that they can sing scales—gamut, I suppose?’
‘Well, no, Michel, not exactly. It means that they have only one “wife.”’