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.

"'I'll think about it, my dear,' she answered.

"'Whenever you say you'll think about it then I'm pretty sure not to