went in
search of the breakfast-table.

"What!" I exclaimed; and I sat upright in my hammock.

There was the parrot on the table.

I eyed him for some time, and then I cried out:

"You little thief! Stealing my food, are you?"

The parrot sat there, but said never a word. He merely raised one of
his claws and sleeked up the feathers on the back of his neck, in the
way his family know so well. Then, raising the feathers of his crest,
he gave utterance to a very faint shriek.

"Get out of this, you rascal!" I cried and immediately got up and went
toward him with the purpose of putting him out.

I approached the table very rapidly, expecting that the bird would fly
away. But he remained motionless. I was about to lay rude hands on him,
but I desisted.

"Why do violence to the creature? Why mar the serenity of this peaceful
vale?" I said to myself. "And why make such ado about a little fruit
when there is abundance on every hand?"

Happening just then to glance at the fruit, it seemed to me that it had
not been disturbed.

I examined it more closely, and began to feel I had done the parrot
great injustice. There it lay, just as I had left it the night before;
there was no evidence whatever of its having been picked at, and I came
to the comforting conclusion that the handsome bird had broken no moral
law.

The parrot rose greatly in my esteem at this happy discovery.

"Friend Parrot," said I, "I beg pardon for having so rashly jumped to
the conclusion that you had been guilty of theft. I believe that you
have touched nothing of the things which belong to me. Indeed, I am
sure that you have not. That you have so scrupulously regarded the
rights of property is to me the source of infinite gratification, and
fills me with the highest admiration of your character. To show you
that I am disinclined to let virtue go unrewarded, I accord you my
permission to stay here while I am eating my breakfast, and when I have
finished, you too may eat some, if you like."

Then, having arranged my toilet, I began to partake of the good things
that lay on the table, the parrot all the while looking at me with
lively interest. I could not help being amused at his significant
performances. He turned his knowing head one way, and then another, now
sidewise toward the fruits, and then obliquely up at me, as I sat
enjoying the repast, enlivening his gestures with gentle prattle, and
yet never making a single demonstration in the di