me to
change the word into tea or sugar, the more I cried 'feath--ers.' He was
so angry with me about it that he sold me to an old lady, who took me
away in her carriage."

"But where did you come from first of all, Polly?" said Herbert. "Where
were you born?"

"I really cannot tell you, sir," said Polly. "I have heard the old
bird-stuffer telling people I was a native of Western Africa, but
whether that was true or not I do not know. All I can recollect of my
first home was sitting beside an old parrot like what I am myself now,
who, I suppose, was my mother; and on looking round, I saw a strange
animal glaring at me from the trunk of the tree behind. I fluttered and
screamed, but my mother did not seem to fancy there was any danger,
till, all at once, she was pounced upon by the animal, and dragged away,
and I never saw her more. Then I crept back into the nest, and lay
half-dead with fright, moaning and crying at times for very loneliness;
but she never came. And even now, Master Herbert--would you believe
it?--I keep thinking of that dreadful time, and I have to shriek out for
some relief to my feelings. You often ask me what I am crying for, but
you will know now. And you often wonder why I won't be friends with the
cat, and try to bite her when I get a chance. Well, the animal that
stole my mother was so very like a cat, that I cannot help hating
everything that looks like one.--But don't you think, sir, Mr. Cocky is
staying out beyond his time. I am not sure of him, sir. Remember, by
his own showing, he was an ill-behaved, ungrateful bird in his youth."

"Yes; but, Polly, don't you think he has some good qualities too?" said
Master Herbert. "I liked to hear him tell how he went to look for his
mother, when the rest were running away, leaving her to her fate. I
really think, if his brothers had been kinder to him he would have been
more amiable. And papa often tells me that if he sees a boy kind to his
mother, he is pretty sure to turn out a good man in the end. But tell
me, Polly, how you got on after your mother left."

"Well, sir," continued Polly, "as I sat looking out of the nest in the
tree, another parrot came and sat beside me, asking all sorts of
questions as to where my mother had gone; and when I told him, he stayed
and took care of me. I suppose he must have been my father. But before I
was many months older, I was knocked down off the tree, just in the
same way as Cockatoo says his mother was knoc