"Oh, please tell me what they are!" pleads Bertie. "I am sure that I can never, never guess all alone."
Dora laughs, and says they will go down and get Poll the parrot to help him guess. Poll is still on her perch; and Dora, holding a cream-cracker, says, "Here is a nice cracker, Poll. Now tell Bertie what is in the big chest in the attic."
"Polly wants a cracker!" cries the bird.
"What is in the attic?" asks Dora.
"Ferrets, ferrets! Run, rats! Run for your lives!" screams the parrot. "Polly wants a cracker!"
"There, my little man; now do you know what is in the chest?" asks Dora as she gives the cracker to Poll.
"Polly says they are ferrets," replies Bertie, dropping his eyes; "but I do not know what that means."
So Dora asks Bertie to sit beside her, and she will tell him about the little ferrets.