ha, ha, good dog--sic 'em, boy. Rats, rats!
Beau-ti-ful Joe, Beau-ti-ful Joe," she cried, rattling off the words as
fast as she could.
I never felt so queer before in my life, and the boys were just roaring
with delight at my puzzled face. Then the parrot began calling for Jim:
"Where's Jim, where's good old Jim? Poor old dog. Give him a bone."
The boys brought Jim in the parlor, and when he heard her funny, little,
cracked voice calling him, he nearly went crazy: "Jimmy, Jimmy, James
Augustus!" she said, which was Jim's long name.
He made a dash out of the room, and the boys screamed so that Mr. Morris
came down from his study to see what the noise meant. As soon as the
parrot saw him, she would not utter another word. The boys told him
though what she had been saying, and he seemed much amused to think that
the cabin boy should have remembered so many sayings his boys made use
of, and taught them to the parrot. "Clever Polly," he said, kindly;
"good Polly."
The cabin boy looked at him shyly, and Jack, who was a very sharp boy,
said quickly, "Is not that what you call her, Henry?"
"No," said the boy; "I call her Bell, short for Bellzebub."
"I beg your pardon," said Jack, very politely.
"Bell--short for Bellzebub," repeated the boy. "Ye see, I thought ye'd
like a name from the Bible, bein' a minister's sons. I hadn't my Bible
with me on this cruise, savin' yer presence, an' I couldn't think of any
girls' names out of it, but Eve or Queen of Sheba, an' they didn't seem
very fit, so I asked one of me mates, an' he says, for his part he
guessed Bellzebub was as pretty a girl's name as any, so I guv her that.
'Twould 'a been better to let you name her, but ye see 'twouldn't 'a
been handy not to call her somethin', where I was teachin' her every
day."
Jack turned away and walked to the window, his face a deep scarlet. I
heard him mutter, "Beelzebub, prince of devils," so I suppose the cabin
boy had given his bird a bad name.
Mr. Morris looked kindly at the cabin boy. "Do you ever call the parrot
by her whole name?"
"No, sir," he replied; "I always give her Bell, but she calls herself
Bella."
"Bella," repeated Mr. Morris; "that is a very pretty name. If you keep
her, boys, I think you had better stick to that."
"Yes, father," they all said; and then Mr. Morris started to go back to
his study. On the doorsill he paused to ask the cabin boy when his ship
sailed. Finding that it was to be in a few days
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