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Page 13
"'Johnny dear, open my cage. I want to take a walk,' she would say in
her most coaxing manner. If she happened to be already out of her cage
and walking about the room, she endeavored to get him to leave me by
saying: 'Here, Johnny, boy, put me on your finger. Kiss poor
Bessie--p-o-o-r Bessie.'
"Mrs. Morris used to laugh at these schemes of the parrot to attract
notice, and said Bessie reminded her of some people she had met who
always wanted to monopolize the conversation."
"Monopolize?" said I. "That's a large word. I don't know the meaning
of it."
"Well, I think it means getting the most of anything and crowding other
people out," replied the admiral; "and it was true in Bessie's case,
for she always wanted the most attention. A gentleman friend of the
Morrises had this habit too. He had been a general in a war that took
place in the South a good many years ago, and was often entertained at
dinner at the Morrises'. Though he was a well-informed, genial man, he
was almost rude in making himself heard, so determined was he that
people should listen to his jokes and stories, which were generally
something about himself. At a large tableful of guests, General
Peterson's voice was always heard above that of every one else. He
seemed to compel the rest of the company to listen. His big voice
drowned the others out. Though Mr. and Mrs. Morris liked him very
much, when they were alone they often ridiculed this disagreeable habit.
"'Bessie and General Peterson are just alike,' Mrs. Morris used to say
jokingly, when the parrot pushed herself into notice by her loud
jabbering. 'Neither of them can endure to have any one else receive
attention when they are present.'
"Although Bessie had not a pony to ride on as Johnny had, she took a
great many jaunts around the parlors on the cat's back. This cat was a
great pet in the house. A very striking-looking cat he was too. He
was jet black with a flat face and long white whiskers. Johnny always
said he resembled an old colored man who used to be their coachman, and
he wondered if they were any relation to each other.
"When Bessie was out of her cage the cat did not often visit the
parlor, because he was afraid of her. He always appeared to be much
relieved when she did not notice him. If she had decided to take a
ride, however, he never was quick enough to get away from her. With a
shrill laugh of triumph she would fly upon his back, and holding on by
digging her claws into his fur, around and around the room they would
go, the poor cat feeling so completely disgraced that he dragged his
body lower and lower at every step, until his legs could scarcely be
seen at all.
"Bessie enjoyed it greatly. She seemed to take a wicked satisfaction
in making poor Jett ridiculous, and laughed and chuckled and scolded
till the cat looked as if he were ready to drop from very shame.
Urging him on with, 'Get up, get up, you lazy thing,' she refused to be
shaken off till his body was actually dragging on the floor, a sign of
his complete humiliation. As soon as he threw off his unwelcome
burden, Jett always ran away to hide. With his tail slinking, his ears
drooping, and crawling rather than walking, he was the most
abject-looking, miserable cat in existence. Bessie meanwhile flirted
herself saucily and chuckled with the conscious air of having done a
very smart thing."
CHAPTER VI
THE PARROT AT A PARTY
A parrot there I saw, with gaudy pride
Of painted plumes, that hopped from side to side.
"How did you happen to get away from the Morrises?" asked my brother.
The red-bird laughed heartily, as if the recollection were exceedingly
amusing.
"Well," said he, "it all came about through Johnny's having a tea
party. For months he had been coaxing and begging his mother to invite
his schoolfellows to the house and entertain them with games and plays
and music, ending with a fine supper. Early in the spring when he
began talking of it, it was too cold, his mother said. Then after a
while it was too rainy, or too warm, or they were house-cleaning, or
something, and so she kept putting him off from one time to another,
hoping by deferring it to make him forget it. The Morrises always
spent the month of August at their seaside cottage, and the night
before they left home, Johnny tried to get Mrs. Morris to promise that
he might have the party the very first thing on their return.
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