and often brought them presents.

One day, after I had been with the Morrises for some months, this boy
arrived at the house with a bunch of green bananas in one hand, and a
parrot in the other. The boys were delighted with the parrot, and called
their mother to see what a pretty bird she was.

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 laughed with all his might, I looked at the other
boys and they were laughing, too. Presently, I heard again, "Beautiful
Joe, Beautiful Joe." The sound was close by, and yet it did not come
from the cabin boy, for he was all doubled up laughing, his face as red
as a beet.

"It's the parrot, Joe!" cried Ned. "Look at her, you gaby." I did look
at her, and with her head on one side, and the sauciest air in the
world, she was saying: "Beau-ti-ful Joe, Beau-ti-ful Joe!"

I had never heard a bird talk before, and I felt so sheepish that I
tried to get down and hide myself under the table. Then she began to
laugh at me. "Ha,