asleep. At that moment his friend in the moss
petticoat and feather cloak came up with a little measure of maize,
and poured it into the cage.

"Here, neighbor," she said; "I must say good-by now, for the gypsy is
coming this way, and I want to buy some of her goods."

"Well, thank you," answered the parrot, sobbing again; "but I could
have wished it had been a pocket-handkerchief."

"I'll lend you my handkerchief," said Jack. "Here!" And he drew it
out, and pushed it between the wires.

The parrot and his wife were in a great hurry to get Jack's
handkerchief. They pulled it in very hastily; but instead of using it
they rolled it up into a ball, and the parrot-wife tucked it under her
wing.

"It makes me tremble all over," said she, "to think of such good
luck."

"I say," observed the parrot to Jack, "I know all about it now. You've
got some of my people in your pockets,--not of my own tribe, but
fairies."

By this Jack was sure that the parrot really was a fairy himself, and
he listened to what he had to say the more attentively.

CHAPTER V.

THE PARROT IN HIS SHAWL.

That handkerchief
Did an Egyptian to my mother give;
She was a charmer, and could almost read
The thoughts of people.--_Othello._

"That gypsy woman who is coming with her cart," said the parrot, "is a
fairy too, and very malicious. It was she and others of her tribe who
caught us and put us into these cages, for they are more powerful than
we. Mind you do not let her allure you into the woods, nor wheedle you
or frighten you into giving her any of those fairies."

"No," said Jack; "I will not."

"She sold us to the brown people," continued the parrot. "Mind you do
not buy anything of her, for your money in her palm would act as a
charm against you."

"She has a baby," observed the parrot-wife, scornfully.

"Yes, a baby," repeated the old parrot; "and I hope by means of that
baby to get her driven away, and perhaps get free myself. I shall try
to put her in a passion. Here she comes."

There she was indeed, almost close at hand. She had a little cart; her
goods were hung all about it, and a small horse drew it slowly on, and
stopped when she got a customer.

Several gypsy children were with her, and as the people came running
together over the grass to see her goods, she sang a curious kind of
song, which made them wish to buy them.

Jack turned from the parrot's cage as she came up. He had heard her
sing