quantity Marjory allows me! We lived close to
the banks of a small river; and oh, it was so delightful, after plunging
into the water, to keep shaking my plumage, until the greater portion of
water was out, and then sit in the sun till I was quite dry! There were
no men on our island, else I should have remembered seeing them; and
nothing ever disturbed our slumbers, save the wild pigs that sometimes
went about routing and grunting, or a cry from one of our band.

"And so time passed on, till we were a year old, when one day we were
startled by hearing screams from a thicket not far off. On getting
along as fast as I could, I met my brothers flying from one branch to
another in the direction I was coming from, who screamed to me to
escape, for an enemy was at hand. One of them said something about my
mother, but what, I could not make out clearly; only I knew she was in
danger somehow. I was in such a hurry to get to see what had happened to
her--for I did love my mother--that I positively took a good long
flight, and landed on a tree some distance off. Then, what was my
astonishment to see a great large face, quite different from anything I
had ever seen before, looking at me from round the trunk! And there,
too, at the bottom of the tree, lay my poor mother, evidently dead. I
heard him cry to another man below to hand him up his bow and arrow; but
before he had got it I flew off once more, taking a longer flight than
before. An old cockatoo told me afterwards that very likely my mother
was not dead, but that she had only been stunned, as those men would
have a button on the arrow to prevent it from killing her. It took me
ever so many days to find my way back to my old home; and when I did
find it, not one of my old companions was there. Gloomy though my
disposition was, still I did not like the idea of living alone, and I
set out to try to find them. On my way I met an old cockatoo who had
been a friend of my poor mother's, and who like me had lost her
companions, so we agreed to go on together. I found her a most
intelligent companion, and she was very useful in showing me what fruit
was good for eating, for there were many new kinds. She showed me some
curious birds'-nests, and told me that men ate them; and a good
hearty chuckle we had over it, you may be sure. We regaled ourselves by
picking out the pulp of the banana, the palm, the lemon, and the berries
from the coffee-tree; and coming upon an almond-tree, we s