I cried out
in a very angry tone of voice, 'Why, what do you mean by looking at me
like that? I would rather not be disturbed.' And I gave a very ugly and
angry screech.

"'Cockatoo,' said she, 'I am grieved to the heart by your behaviour.
Take my advice, sir, and mend your ways, else I fear something bad will
come of it.'

"'I will not be interfered with,' I said; 'and I don't care if you never
speak to me again;' and I screeched louder and uglier than before.

[Illustration: UNWELCOME ADVICE.

_Page 36._]

"I must say she was very good to me, though I couldn't or wouldn't see
it at the time; and seeing that I was determined to be sulky and
ill-natured, she left me. Two or three days after, a green parrot, that
my friend had warned me against, came and sat in a bush near me. He kept
chattering away to himself,--speaking about the hard way he was used by
the other parrots, and threatening to fly away and see them no more.
Now, I had noticed they were rather severe upon him, but I also knew he
was not a well-behaved bird by any means; but in my present state of
mind I couldn't help pitying him.

"Creeping along the branch, I ventured to inquire what was the matter,
when he poured into my ears a perfect shower of complaints against his
brothers and sisters, friends and companions, and even against his
parents. Two or three times I tried to get in a word of inquiry as to
whether some of his trouble had not been brought on by his own conduct;
for at that moment I remembered how gently my mother used to speak to me
when I used to rage against all the cockatoos in my happy home by the
bank of the river. However, it was useless to interfere with him, for
the mere mention of the idea made his rage something fearful to witness.
The sight of him called to mind, too, what my mother used to say to us
when we lay curled up snugly in our nest in the old tree, before my
brothers had learned to tease me. 'Children,' she used to say, 'a
beautiful plumage is all very well, but a happy-looking face, and a
kind, amiable disposition, are to be prized far before the loveliest
coloured feathers.'

"This parrot now before me was as lovely a bird of his kind as one would
wish to see; but his face was purple with rage, and his lovely feathers
were all ruffled and rumpled with passion, so that any kind of feathers
might have served him equally well.

"I cannot tell how it was," said the cockatoo, "but from that time I was
always meeti