What did that parrot do but throw herself on her back, kick her clumsy feet into the air, and cry with all her might! I saw no tears, it is true; but if I had not been looking on, I would have been sure that a very spunky child was having a fit of crying. Imagine my astonishment! I had never heard a parrot cry; did not know that it was ever one of their accomplishments. Being a parrot, what would have been extremely disagreeable in a child, was really as funny as possible, and I laughed until I was in danger of shedding tears myself. Still the passionate whine went on. Suddenly the back parlor door was opened slightly, and a sweet voice said: "Mamma, you may let Polly come to me; I am not doing anything which she will disturb."
"Polly," said her mistress, "do you hear that? Get up. Clara says you may go where she is."
Instantly the parrot rolled over on her side, and burst into the most jubilant peal of laughter I ever heard—"Ha, ha, ha! ho, ho!" triumph in every note.
Then she straightened herself up, shook out her feathers, and waddled triumphantly out of the room.
"She is a curious creature," said the lady; "quite a study. We have not had her long, and it is very amusing to us; we know the habits and customs of the family from whom she came almost as well as though we had lived with them. You know parrots get all their knowledge by imitation. Isn't it remarkable, and rather startling when one stops to think of it, that even a parrot can produce your faults and foibles for others to laugh at? I often wonder what I am teaching her, unintentionally, which will astonish some one else."
"It is wonderful!" I said. And then I fell to wondering whether it was a girl or boy who had taught that parrot to lie on its back and cry because it couldn't have its own way. And what sort of a man or woman such a child would be likely to make.
I doubt whether the child, whoever he was, would have done it before me—a stranger—and here the parrot had told me all about it!
Pansy.
Aunt Esther was trying very hard to persuade little Eddy to retire at sunset, using as an argument that the little chickens always went to roost at that time.