ed
down, as I said, and then rolled about in the mud, till you could hardly
have distinguished her head from her feet, or her peacock's plume from a
cow's tail. And very thankful and very much delighted she ought to have
been, for, if she had been quite choked with mire, it would have been
better than burning alive!"

"A painful choice," observed Dick.

"But she was _not_ choked to death," continued Matty; "she was not hurt
the least bit; and yet--would you believe it?--Miss Folly is in a most
furious rage against those who saved her. She declares that she ought to
have a lawsuit against Nelly and Lubin to recover the value of her
clothes, and another to get them punished for knocking her into the mud;
and she has promised a thousand times never to come near one of our
family again."

"I hope," said Dick, with a smile, "that for once Miss Folly may keep
her promise. But what has become of her red cockatoo?"

"Ah, there's another great grievance!" cried Matty. "The bird must have
been frightened by the explosion; and no wonder, for a terrible sight it
was, and a horrible noise it made. Parade has flown off, no one knows
whither; and though papers and placards about him have been put up in
every direction, offering no end of rewards to whoever will bring him
back, the bird is not to be found. Folly says, that poor innocent I must
have hidden him somewhere from view; but I am sure that I have not even
a guess whither the gaudy creature has fled!"

"Had you hidden him," observed Dick Desley, "Parade would soon have
betrayed you by screaming out 'Ain't I fine?' And what has become of
Pride?"

"Some say," replied Matty, "that he got a great blow on the nose at the
time of the explosion; others say that he was not at all injured by it.
He certainly did not help Duty to put out the fire. All that I know of
Pride is, that he came to our villas this morning, and walked straight
up to yours, I suppose from its being the one which he had been most
accustomed to visit. I saw him from my window, standing awhile with
folded arms, gloomily surveying the place; he then shrugged his
shoulders, said, 'What a wreck!' and instantly stalked away."

"What did he mean by exclaiming 'What a wreck?'" asked Dick, with a look
of surprise.

"He meant your poor cottage, of course," replied Matty; "all its
furniture burned and destroyed."

"How--what?" exclaimed Dick in a startled tone; "the fire was not in my
cottage at all; the explosio