"Very well," she would say, "I am glad you are so content; but if you had the feelings of a mother you wouldn't be."
To this Captain Richards could make no reply. He had the feelings of a father; but then he was a soldier, and was used to taking risks.
And once Perry, roaming around, looked in a window, and on a table close by lay Mrs. Richards's coral breast-pin. It was pretty, and it looked good; so in went Perry's head, and in a flash the pin was down his throat.
Then, also, he would eat the little chickens. No one cared how many rats and grasshoppers he ate, but it was very provoking to have a pretty little brood of chickens gobbled up by this long-legged camel-bird. Even John did not like this, and he was glad when his father had a slatted coop made for the hens and their little ones. For a time all went well, but suddenly the chicks began to disappear, and then Mrs. Richards set a man to watch.
After a while up walked Perry, and stood watching the chickens. Presently a little one came near the slats. Quick as a flash in went Perry's head, and that little chicken was gone.
But they spoiled Perry's fun very quickly, for the men went to work at once and fixed the coops so Perry could not reach one of the chickens.
Every year Perry used to lose some of his feathers, and after Mrs. Richards had saved quite a number of them she sent them to her sister in London, and told her what to do with the money for which they were to be sold.
John knew nothing of it, and you may know he was surprised when one hot Christmas-day he received a box of books and a fine microscope from London. He showed them to Perry, but as the ostrich did not seem to care for them, John gave him all the nails and clamps from the box, and these Perry really did enjoy.