[Illustration: THE PARROT THAT PLAYED TRUANT.]

THE PARROT THAT PLAYED TRUANT.

[Illustration: O]LD Miss Dorothy Draper had a parrot. It was one of the
few things she loved. And the parrot seemed to love her in return. Miss
Dorothy would hang the cage outside of her window every sunny day.
Sometimes an idle boy would come along, and poke a stick between the
wires; and then the old lady would say, "Boy, go away!"

But one day, when the window was open, and the door of the cage was open
also, Polly thought it was a good time to play truant. So she hopped
out, rested on the sill a moment, and then flew into the street, from
tree to tree, and from lamp-post to lamp-post.

Poor Miss Dorothy was in despair. How should she get back her lost pet?
She called in a policeman, and he advised her to get out a handbill,
offering a reward. So in an hour this notice was pasted on the walls
near by:--

LOST!--A green-and-white parrot. It answers to the
name of Polly, and can talk quite plainly. It
says, "Boy, go away!" also, "Polly wants a
cracker," and "No, you don't!" Any one finding
this bird shall, on returning it to its afflicted
owner, Miss D. Draper, No. 10, Maiden Place,
receive a reward of two dollars.

Little Tony Peterkin was walking home from school, and wishing he had
money enough to buy a copy of Virgil without going to his mother for
it,--for she was a widow, and poor,--when he saw a man pasting this
handbill on a wall. Tony read it, and said aloud, "Oh, I wish I could
find that parrot!"

A girl who heard him said, "I saw a parrot just now on one of the trees
in Lake Street."--"Did you?" said Tony; and off he ran. The parrot had
flown from the tree to the top of the lamp-post; and when Tony got
there, two women, a newsboy, and a policeman were looking up at the
strange fowl.

It was the work of a second for Tony to spring at the iron post, and
begin climbing up. "No, you don't!" cried the parrot. That frightened
Tony, so that he almost dropped; but he took heart when he thought of
the two dollars and a new fresh copy of Virgil.

Up he climbed; but just as he was going to put his hand on the little
cross-bar under the lamp, "Boy, go away!" cried Poll. Tony's heart beat
at these words; but he held on. "Poll, Poll, pretty Poll!" cried he:
"come and get a cracker!"--"Polly wants a cracker," replied the bird.

The truth was, Polly was