attention, at-ten-tion;" and she
lengthened out the last word with a shrill scream peculiar to parrots.

"But it would take ever so long to tell," said the cockatoo, "and my
feelings or my nerves have got the better of me at this moment, and I
really couldn't; only if you heard my history you would think it very
wonderful indeed;" and here Mr. Cockatoo lifted up his foot and
scratched his eye.

"A history, did you say?" said the gray parrot, pausing in her walk
along her perch, and looking at him over her back. "Pray, how old are
you, may I ask?"

"Well, I'll be about two years old," said the cockatoo, straightening
himself up, and looking over to the gray parrot, as if he expected the
news would surprise her greatly.

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Mrs. Polly; "two years old, and has a history! Oh
dear! my old sides will split. What a youth he is, to be sure, ha, ha,
ha!"

"I don't see anything to laugh at," said the poor cockatoo, collapsing
into his sulky state once more. "I tell you I _have_ a history, and a
wonderful history too. I wish you would stop that chatter."

"Boy, boy, you'll be the death of me," said Mrs. Polly, not in her own
language, but in the words taught her by Master Herbert.

"Oh, if you are going to speak in the language used by these abominable
people who keep us here as prisoners and slaves, I've nothing more to
say," said the poor cockatoo, scratching his eye once more.

"Well, I won't then," said Mrs. Polly graciously. "I have been told it
is the height of bad manners to speak in a foreign language, if it is
not understood by your companion, so I shall confine myself, when
addressing you, to my mother tongue. And now, since you have told me
your age, would you like to know mine?"

"Yes," said the cockatoo, for he really was a little puzzled as to Mrs.
Polly's behaviour.

"Well, I'm seventy years old!" replied Mrs. Polly, drawing up her neck
as far as its limited length would permit. "And now you can understand
why I laughed, sir; for it did look a little absurd to hear a bird of
your tender years speaking of a history. Think what mine must be, and
what I must have come through and seen in my long life!"

They were here interrupted by the appearance once more of Master
Herbert, who brought a most tempting piece of cake in his hand. Going up
to the cockatoo, he said, "I suppose I needn't offer you this, Cockatoo.
You are determined not to be friends." The cockatoo put out his claw for
it,