He
is a wonder!"

"He can whistle 'Auld Lang Syne,' too, I think he does it quite as
well as 'Annie Laurie.'"

The applause had started again, and the lights, which had been
turned on, went out. The audience quieted at once.

Soft and sweet came the tones of a violin.

"Doodles," breathed Miss Sterling.

Nelson Randolph bent his head to hear, and nodded in answer.

Softly the player slipped into "Old Folks at Home," and the tune
went on slowly, lingeringly, as if waiting for something that did
not come. Again it was played, this time with the voice of Doodles
accompanying.

Meanwhile Polly was tiptoeing noiselessly from group to group and
from guest to guest, with the soft-breathed word, "No applause,
please!"

Over and over sounded the sweet, haunting melody, until not a few
of those unfamiliar with the methods of the patient teacher and his
singular little pupil, wondered, with Miss Crilly, "what in the
world was up."

Then, just as almost everybody's nerves were growing tense, Caruso
took up the air and carried it on bewitchingly to its close.

"How can he do it!"--"Wasn't that perfectly beautiful!"--"Did you
teach it to him, Doodles?"--"My! but he's a jimdandy, and no
mistake!" These and a score of others were tossed about as the
lights went up.

"I must have a nearer view of that singer," declared Nelson
Randolph. "I'm sure he can't look like an ordinary mocker; he must
show the marks of genius in his feathers!"

Miss Sterling laughed. "He is certainly surprising. Doodles told
me he was trying to teach him a new song, but I was not prepared
for anything like this."

"Who could be!--Come!" he invited. "Let's go over and see him!"

Juanita Sterling unavoidably brushed Miss Crilly on the way across,
and smiled pleasantly, to which that middle-aged merrymaker
responded with a whispered, "Ain't you swell, a-goin' with the
president all the evening!"

Miss Sterling flung back a laughing shake of the head, and passed
on.

Nelson Randolph scanned the slim gray bird in silence. Then he
turned to his companion.

"It doesn't seem possible that this little fellow could do all
that!"

Doodles smiled across the cage. He was giving Caruso the tidbit
which he had well earned.

"How long does it take you to teach him a song?"

"I've only taught him one, Mr. Randolph. He was several months
learning that. He knew 'Annie Laurie' when he came, and Mr.
Gillespie taught him 'Auld Lang Syne.'"