chief flew off
that had covered its face, and was caught in the wires of the cage,
and all the people saw that it was not a real baby at all, but a
bundle of clothes, and its head was a turnip.

Yes, a turnip! You could see that as plainly as possible, for though
the green leaves had been cut off, their stalks were visible through
the lace cap that had been tied on it.

Upon this all the crowd pressed closer, throwing her baskets, and
brushes, and laces, and beads at the gypsy, and calling out, "We will
have none of your goods, you false woman! Give us back our money, or
we will drive you out of the fair. You've stuck a stick into a turnip,
and dressed it up in baby clothes. You're a cheat! a cheat!"

"My sweet gentlemen, my kind ladies," began the gypsy; but baskets and
brushes flew at her so fast that she was obliged to sit down on the
grass and hold up the sham baby to screen her face.

While this was going on, Jack felt that the cobwebs which had seemed
to float about his face were all gone; he did not care at all any more
about the gypsy, and began to watch the parrots with great attention.

He observed that when the handkerchief stuck between the cage wires,
the parrots caught it, and drew it inside; and then Jack saw the
cunning old bird himself lay it on the floor, fold it crosswise like
a shawl, and put it on his wife.

Then she jumped upon the perch, and held it with one foot, looking
precisely like an old lady with a parrot's head. Then he folded Jack's
handkerchief in the same way, put it on, and got upon the perch beside
his wife, screaming out, in his most piercing tone,--

"I like shawls; they're so becoming."

Now the gypsy did not care at all what those inferior people thought
of her, and she was calmly counting out their money, to return it; but
she was very desirous to make Jack forget her behavior, and had begun
to smile again, and tell him she had only been joking, when the parrot
spoke, and, looking up, she saw the two birds sitting side by side,
and the parrot-wife was screaming in her mate's ear, though neither of
them was at all deaf,--

"If Jack lets her allure him into the woods, he'll never come out
again. She'll hang him up in a cage, as she did us. I say, how does
my shawl fit?"

So saying, the parrot-wife whisked herself round on the perch, and lo!
in the corner of the handkerchief were seen some curious letters,
marked in red. When the crowd saw these, they drew a little farth