hair rope and a
can of California apricots."

"Put 'em in a box?" cried Curly. "Why? Them was _ornyments_! Now
you ain't got a ornyment on your whole place, except a horned toad and
four tarantulas in a teacup. Now a real ornyment is somethin' you put
on the parlor table, man, and show it free and open. It's sort of
sacred like."

"Not for rats," said McKinney.

"You'd better keep your eye on that parrot," warned Doc Tomlinson.
"About to-morrow, you tell us what you find out."

But on the morrow the mystery remained unsolved. "One heel's plumb
gone," said Curly, sighing. "And they've begun on the toe of the other
foot."

Bill, the parrot, remained under increasing suspicion. "He's got a
wall eye," said McKinney, "and I never seen a wall eye in a man, woman,
or mustang, that it didn't mean bad. This here bird ain't no Hereford,
nor yet a short-horn. He's a dogy that ain't bred right, and he ain't
due to act right." All Curly could do was to shake his head,
unpersuaded.

Meantime, there went on in the little cabin across the _arroyo_, a
reproduction of an old, old drama. Should we, after all, criticise
these two descendants of the first sweet human woman of the world?
Consider; to their young and inexperienced eyes appealed all the
fascinations of this august but tempting object, new, strange,
appealing. For a time their hearts were strong, upon their souls
rested the ancient mandate of denial. They gazed, short breathed, in
awe, upon this radiantly bestriped, unspeakably fascinating, wholly and
resplendently pulchritudinous creation. They must have known that it
was a part of the family pride, a part of the parlor--a part, indeed,
of the intermingled fabric of the civilization of Heart's Desire! And
yet--alas!

One morning the twins foregathered in the parlor. The hour of
temptation, as is always the case, found all things well ordered for
the success of evil.

"Everybody's gone," whispered Suzanne. "There ain't nobody here at
all."

"Only Bill," said Arabella, looking at the parrot, which regarded them
with a badly bored aspect. "I wonder if he'd tell?"

"Oh, dang it all!" remarked Bill; "I'm tired!"

"He's awful," remarked Arabella. "He swears. Folks that swears goes
to the bad place. Besides, Bill wouldn't tell, would you, Bill?"

"He'll go to sleep," said Suzanne. "Besides, we ain't goin' to bite
off only just a little _bit_ of a _bite_! Nobody'll never notice it."

Twofold