Mrs. Morris seemed very much touched by the boy's
thoughtfulness in bringing a present such a long distance to her
boys, and thanked him warmly. The cabin boy became very shy
and all he could say was, "Go way!" over and over again, in a very
awkward manner.

Mrs. Morris smiled, and left him with the boys. I think that she
thought he would be more comfortable with them.

Jack put me up on the table to look at the parrot. The boy held her
by a string tied around one of her legs. She was a gray parrot with
a few red feathers in her tail, and she had bright eyes, and a very
knowing air.

The boy said he had been careful to buy a young one that could not
speak, for he knew the Morris boys would not want one chattering
foreign gibberish, nor yet one that would swear. He had kept her in
his bunk in the ship, and had spent all his leisure time in teaching
her to talk. Then he looked at her anxiously, and said, "Show off
now, can't ye?"

I didn't know what he meant by all this, until afterward. I had
never heard of such a thing as birds talking. I stood on the table
staring hard at her, and she stared hard at me. I was just thinking
that I would not like to have her sharp little beak fastened in my
skin, when I heard some one say, "Beautiful Joe." The voice
seemed to come from the room, but I knew all the voices there,
and this was one I had never heard before, so I thought I must be
mistaken, and it was some one in the hall. I struggled to get away
from Jack to run and see who it was. But he held me fast, and