“What do you mean?” asked the master.
But for a long time Tweaky would say nothing but the same words over and over again, “Where’s your feathers, Tell-tale tit?” However, by-and-by they heard the maid going to bed, tramp, tramp, tramp. Then Tweaky grew a little braver; and next time the master asked him what he meant, he replied:
“Every parrot has two eyes,
Both the foolish and the wise;
But the wise can shut them tight
When ’tis best to have no sight.
Wisdom has the best of it:
Where’s your feathers, Tell-tale tit?”
Then the master understood what had happened, for he was a very clever man; and without any delay he ran upstairs two steps at a time, and woke the maid, and made her dress herself, and turned her out of the house then and there. I wonder why he did not do it before, but that is no business of mine.
After that, poor Beaky never had the heart to talk again; but Tweaky, whenever he saw a bald-headed man, or a woman with a high forehead, shrieked out at the top of his voice—