Mrs. George Cupples

“ They were here interrupted by the appearance once more of Master Herbert, who brought a most tempting piece of cake in his hand. Going up to the cockatoo, he said, "I suppose I needn't offer you this, Cockatoo. You are determined not to be friends." The cockatoo put out his claw for it, and took it gently from Herbert's hand, who could not fail to see there was a marked difference in the bird's appearance.
"Good boy, good boy!" shrieked the gray parrot from her perch, quite forgetting she had promised never to speak the English language, in her eagerness to mark her approval of his conduct. ”

“ But Herbert says, if we are very kind to the [Pg 94] animals, even although we do not understand their language exactly as he does, we will get to understand a different kind; and by the expression in their eye, and by their voice, will know when they are happy or sad. Now, you always kill every insect and fly you see."
"I really can't help killing them. I wonder why they were made at all," said Jane.
"But, Jane, do you never think how displeased God must be if you kill even a beetle?" ”

“ Polly saying to the cockatoo, "Now, sir, if you sulk, Master Herbert will know what it's for."
"I say, Polly," said Herbert, "am I really to understand your language? Did you see the fairy too?"
"Oh yes, sir," replied Mrs. Polly. "I saw her, and heard what she said; and let me tell you, sir, it isn't every boy that receives such a reward; but you must have pleased the fairy Fauna, by being [Pg 19] kind to all the creatures, great and small. Yes, she has heard no doubt how you open the window, and put the bees and the blue-bottle flies out, instead of killing them. ”

“ Here Herbert ran off for his book on natural history; and while he was gone, Polly entertained Charley as well as she could till Herbert's return. Polly admired the picture very much; but said, though his plumage was very fine, no doubt, she did not like the expression of his face—though she dared say it was not a good likeness. She said this out of civility, but all the time she thought the "Great Mogul" a most unlovable-looking bird, and she was very glad to find herself a gray parrot instead. ”

“ We lived close to the banks of a small river; and oh, it was so delightful, after plunging into the water, to keep shaking my plumage, until the greater portion of water was out, and then sit in the sun till I was quite dry! There were no men on our island, else I should have remembered seeing them; and nothing ever disturbed our slumbers, save the wild pigs that sometimes went about routing and grunting, or a cry from one of our band. ”

“ I am not sure of him, sir. Re [Pg 64] member, 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." ”

“ Polly. "I've lived seventy years in this world, and I've kept my eyes wide open, and I've seen boys, ay, and girls too, do very cruel things to dumb animals." [Pg 20]
"Dear me, Polly, have you lived seventy years?" replied Herbert in much astonishment; "I had no idea of it. Uncle James says parrots live to a great age—he knew one that was a hundred years old; but somehow I thought you were quite young. I mustn't ask you to dance quite so often, for your legs must feel rather stiff at times. But what was that the fairy said you could teach me? ”

“ The greedy dog knew that both the cockatoo and Polly never held anything long, and that if he only had patience he would get it in the end. Polly was calling out for the twentieth time—"Leave the room, sir!—Greedy Dick!—Oh fie! fie!" when Herbert and Charley entered. [Pg 83]
"Why, what's the matter, Polly?" said Herbert. "It's not a good thing to lose your temper in that way. Come, tell us who this greedy Dick is, that you are always sending out of the room." ”

“ Charley was always delighted to be with Herbert when he fed the parrots; for though he did not understand their language, as Herbert did, his cousin acted as interpreter, and some of the stories were really very entertaining. The other children were often there too; and over and over again they vowed to be kind to all living creatures, in the hope that they too would be allowed to understand the language of the birds.
"Yes, sir; I shall be most happy to tell you about greedy Dick," said Polly. "But I should like to see the new parrot. ”

“ I really cannot understand why boys and girls take such little interest in [Pg 97] natural history. Speaking of fairies, you will read of them there in the shape of the butterflies—what can be more fairy-like?—and I will tell you what mamma often says: if we only knew what pleasure we could draw from common objects around us, rainy days would be less dreary, and we should have happier hearts and more contented minds."
"I feel you are right there, Master Herbert," said the cockatoo. "I have felt twice as happy since Mrs. Polly persuaded me to make the most of my present condition ”

“ His Aunt Mary, and my favourite mistress, used to say so often, 'Greedy Dick,' that I very soon picked up the words; and when I saw him slipping into the press to steal the sugar, I would call out—'Oh fie! fie!—who stole the sugar?' His aunts used to tell him that even a bird had more sense, and used to beg him to take an example from me; [Pg 87] for I did not gobble up everything I got at once, but put it in my tin dish till I was hungry. Ah! Master Dick knew that very well indeed; and many a time had he slipped up and stolen my piece of sweet-cake, or other dainty. ”

“ I see now I brought the troubles on myself."
"Kind!" screamed a small gray parrot from a perch on the opposite side; [Pg 8] "of course he means to be kind. You won't often meet a kinder; let me tell you that, sir. If I could only get this chain off my foot, I'd come over and give you as good a pecking as ever you got in your life, you sulky, ungrateful bird you! And then Master Herbert stands, day after day, trying to tempt you with the daintiest morsels, and there you sit and sulk, or take it with your face turned from him, when hunger forces you." ”

“ Polly, with a wise shake of her head, "when you come to look back upon life from as long a pilgrimage, you will see [Pg 98] that the busier you are, and the more good you do, there will be less inclination to be discontented. And with such a beautiful world around you, and so much to learn about it, and the wise lessons it can teach, who would be anything but contented?—But I am keeping you from your companions, Master Herbert, so I must wish you good-day, sir. ”

“ I was really a fine-looking bird at that time;" and here Polly flounced out her feathers coquettishly, as if she were still a young bird. "I did like living there; no servants ever were allowed to wait upon me, for the young ladies of the house were so fond of me they fed me with their own fair hands. Dick was their nephew, and a nice-looking boy,—clever, too,—very; [Pg 86] but he had one bad habit that grieved his aunts very much. At all his meals he would keep stuffing and stuffing himself, just like a little pig feeding for market. ”

“ How often since, while sitting in this cage or on my perch, have I thought of those happy days of freedom! Forests of woods and grasses, bear [Pg 28] ing the most lovely flowers and the most delicious fruits, from the edge of the sea to the top of the mountain. ”

“ Polly, you are to have another companion very soon?" said Herbert, giving the gray parrot another piece of cake. "He's a great scarlet macaw, and Uncle James says he is getting him sent from South America. Oh dear! I should like to be able to understand your chatter—I mean your own language, Polly—because you could tell such a great deal about the different countries you have come from. There's [Pg 17] Cockatoo, he could tell us about the Indian Islands, and Borneo;—that was where Uncle James brought you from, sir, when he was on his voyage to Canton. He got ever so many birds of paradise, too ”

“ If we were called to name any living writer who, to Calvin's exegetical tact, unites a large measure of Calvin's grasp of mind and transparent clearness in the department of systematic theology, we should point to this Princeton Professor. He possesses, to use the words of an English critic, the power of seizing and retaining with a rare vigour and tenacity the great doctrinal turning-points in a controversy; while he is able to expose with triumphant dexterity the various subterfuges under which it has been sought to elude them. ”

“ Herbert having consented, away flew the cockatoo down on to the path; but at that moment a huge cat, which lived outside, and which had a lively young family of five kittens, under the summer-house, saw the bird and made a pounce at him, catching him by the feathers of his tail. Fortunately Herbert saw what had happened, and before the cockatoo had time to scream, he had pitched his cap at Mrs. Puss, and then drove her away with the branch of a tree lying near. Mr. Cockatoo was shaking with fright, and was thankful to find himself inside [Pg 73] his cage once more, with the door securely shut. ”

“ I felt at the time she was asking me to be a good bird; but now that I have known you, sir, so long, and am better acquainted with the English language, I know she told me how much happier I should be if I were good. 'Oh fie, Cockatoo,' I think I hear her saying, 'how naughty of you to bite the captain's finger; you ought to be a good bird, sir,—and he is [Pg 54] so kind to you, and all the birds aboard.' It was all very well for Miss Maud to speak of the captain being good ”

“ 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 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 [Pg 36] above me. ”

“ I don't wonder he is considered the most magnificent of the parrot tribe."
"It is certainly a very beautiful bird," said Charley; "but I've read somewhere about it looking like a richly-liveried footman, and whoever said so was not far wrong."
Dash had slipped away when he found there were no more pieces to be got from the macaw; and when Herbert and Charley went into the room where Mrs. Polly and the cockatoo stayed, there they found him, sitting at the foot of Cockatoo's perch begging for a dainty morsel. The cockatoo was chattering away to him ”

“ One young woman, the lady's-maid, was particularly tormenting in this way; and when Tom, the footman, tried to teach me a new song, I could not help noticing she was in a great fright. I pricked up my ears at once, and showed Tom I was all attention. In a very few days I could say it quite correctly, but no one knew of it except Tom. Seeing the lady's-maid preparing to go out one day, and dressed in her very finest clothes, I took the opportunity to ask her for a drink of water, my dish being empty ”

“ So hoping to help her out of the difficulty, I called out, 'Tom, Tom, Tom! Come here, sir! Oh fie!'
"Tom was at the door waiting for our mistress, I knew; and being a kind-hearted lad, he came in at once; and seeing Emma in tears, and hearing the story, [Pg 70] told he had taught me the song, and she knew nothing about it. Though my mistress said she was satisfied with Tom's explanation, she was still angry, and ordered poor Emma to take off her finery and remain at home. After she was gone, Emma took my cage into the garden, where I was often allowed to remain for hours. ”

“ Three "books" describe groups of insects, in regard to their metamorphoses, their industries, their social communities. The beautiful illustrations combine flowers and landscapes with insect life.
NATURE; or, The Poetry of Earth and Sea. From the French of Mme. Michelet. With upwards of Two Hundred Illustrations drawn specially for this Work by Giacomelli (Illustrator of "The Bird") , and engraved by the most eminent French and English Artists. ”