cursionists as stood by and registered emphatic denial. "Uh-huh?" she
called down in apparent acceptance of these lurid statements, at the
same time remarking baldly to Mr. Tinneray, who had placed himself at
her side,

"_She_ ain't got no telephone!"

At this moment something seemed to occur to little Mrs. Cronney. As she
gave a parting defiant scrutiny to her opulent sister her black eyes
snapped in hollow reminiscence and she called out,

"Say--how's your parrot? How's your beau--Ro-me-o?"

At this, understood to be a parting shot, the crowd strung along the
rail of the _Fall of Rome_ burst into an appreciative titter. Mrs.
Tuttle, reddening, made no answer, but Mr. Tinneray, standing by and
knowing what he knew, seized this opportunity to call down vociferously,

"Oh--he's good, Romeo is. But your sister's had him to the excursion and
he's got just a little seasick comin' over. Mis' Tuttle, yer sister, is
going to leave him with you, till she can come and take him home, by
land, ye know, in her ottermobile--she's coming to get you too, fer a
visit, ye know."

There was an effect almost as of panic on the _Fall of Rome_. Not only
did the big whistle for "all aboard" blow, but some one's new hat went
overboard and while every one crowded to one side to see it rescued, it
was not discovered that Romeo's cage had disappeared! In the confusion
of a band of desperadoes composed of the entire group of cynical young
men with ivory-headed canes, seized upon an object covered with
something like an altar-cloth and ran down the gangplank with it.

Going in a body to little Mrs. Cronney, these young men deposited a
glittering burden, the gold parrot-cage with the green bird sitting
within, in her surprised and gratified embrace. Like flashes these agile
young men jumped back upon the deck of the _Fall of Rome_ just before
the space between wharf and deck became too wide to jump. Meanwhile on
the upper deck, before the petrified Mrs. Tuttle could open her mouth,
Mr. Tinneray shouted instructions,

"Your sister wants you should keep him," he roared, "till she comes
over to see you in her
ottermobile--to--fetch--him--and--git--you--for--a--visit!"

Suddenly the entire crowd of excursionists on the after-deck of the
_Fall of Rome_ gave a rousing cheer. The gratified young men with the
ivory-headed canes suddenly saw themselves of the age of chivalry and
burst into ragtime rapture; the excursion, a mass of waving flags and