tayed under it
for a whole week. Then we proceeded on our journey. We must have
travelled miles, and we were beginning to despair of ever seeing the
flock again, when we heard a great chatter chatter, and in a few minutes
we came in sight of a great number of birds of different colours, in
earnest conversation.

[Illustration: DANGEROUS COMPANY.

_Page 29._]

"'Stop, my boy,' said my companion; 'we had better not show ourselves
for a little. They may be friends; but birds though they are, if they
see anything strange in our appearance, they will fall upon us, and may
peck out our feathers, if not our very eyes.'"

"After waiting for a little," continued the cockatoo, "and after
listening very hard, my companion explained to me she thought we might
venture to join the group; for if they weren't cockatoos, they were our
cousins the parrots; and in a minute more she spread out her wings, and
alighted in the midst of them. They were somewhat startled at first; but
on her explaining why she was there, they received her very kindly; and
she then called out to me to approach, for I had waited in a bush out of
sight, feeling a little shy and nervous. They were greatly delighted
with my appearance, and I fear they quite turned my head by their
praises. I know I gave myself airs, and strutted about in a manner that
would have vexed my poor mother, could she but have seen me. My
companion over and over again reminded me to beware of conceit, saying
that even in a cockatoo it was a dangerous thing to carry about with
one; and that though our cousins were pleased with me at present, they
would tire of praising me by-and-by, if they saw how foolish it made me.
But I was only a year old at that time, and had always been a little
headstrong and difficult to manage.

"As my old friend had said," continued the cockatoo, "my newly-found
cousins were not long in finding out my bad qualities, and they were
almost harder upon me than my own brothers had been; which caused my
temper to give way again, and from being a very frank, obliging bird, I
became quite a cross, ill-natured one. One day I had retired to the
woods, and was sitting sulking by myself in a bush, when the old
cockatoo came and perched herself on the branch above me. For some
minutes she sat looking at me without uttering a sound; but every now
and then she would shake her head, or raise up her crest in rather a
fierce manner. At last I couldn't stand it any longer, and