ar a large window, but heavy curtains prevented me from
getting more than a single peep of daylight. I saw my new master only
for a short time morning and evening, and the solitude was terrible. I
sat alone day after day, believing myself to be slowly dying of sadness.
I wished that my life could be one long sleep, for when, my head buried
in my feathers, I went to the land of dreams, I lived again in the
forest where I was born; I saw once more the noble branches of my native
tree, and heard the rushing waters of the mighty river on whose banks it
stood; I breathed the perfume of thousands of wild flowers; crowds of
brilliant birds came hurrying to comfort me; I saw again my father, my
mother, my brother, and my sister; I believed myself free once more.
Alas! sorrowful was the awaking from all these delights.

"Are you happy?" my master would say. "Have you eaten your breakfast,
Lorito?" Yes, indeed, I had breakfasted. I did nothing but eat breakfast
from morning till night. I grew very fat, and what was worse, I became
so stupid that I repeated like an echo all my master's words. "Have you
eaten your breakfast?" I would scream; and my master would laugh, and
toss me a lump of sugar. That was my only recreation--to repeat my
master's words and eat sugar. I was gradually losing all sense of honor
and truth, and to be praised and get a lump of sugar I would rest my
beak in my claw and say, with a languishing air, "My head aches; let me
alone." My head did ache, too, sometimes, remembering the days when I
knew only the language of my fathers, when the sweet voice of my mother
waked me in the morning to pass a happy day playing with my brother and
sister. Solitude and confinement had soured my character. The rings of
my chain hurt my feet so that they were becoming swelled and inflamed. I
hated all the world. When my master filled my feed dish with dainties,
instead of gratefully accepting his kindness I would seize the dish and
spitefully overturn its contents. All day long I screamed as loud as I
could, and it gave me the greatest satisfaction when once a policeman
came running in great haste to inquire of the house-maid if there was
any trouble. "That horrid parrot!" I heard her say, and I laughed as
loud as I had screamed before.

One morning my master entered the dining-room, in the window of which
stood my perch, followed by a lady and three beautiful children, who
rushed toward me eagerly.

"Be careful, Hope," sai