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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1867, by J. W. Burke Sc Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia.
Vol. I.
TALES OF A GREAT TRAVELER.
NO. II. —JOCKO AND DOLL PARROT.
ONCE made a long and dis
astrous voyage—as you
shall hear by and by—to
°f Africa, as su
percargo of a small vessel
trading with the natives all along
the coast. —
p&aL When about to
'£f return home, I
bought as a present
for my sister a beauti
ful green parrot, fully
? grown, who, besides
| talking parrot lan-
I guage, could say some
words in English—
having belonged to an
English trader, set
l tied in Sierra Leone.
I had also purchased,
; for my brother Tom,
5 a monkey, who I
: think must have been
■ the most mischievous
of his race. Jocko
was frequently allow-
I ed to run at large over
I the decks, and there
would be great racing
and chasing after him
I sometimes, when he
1 was caught at some
| mischief. lie would
run away when ho
ft, saw the whip threat
ening him, and then
I got so far out on the masts and yard
arms, that no one could approach him.—
When the danger was past, he would steal
down quietly, and hide himself away till
I he thought his pranks were forgotten.
Poll Parrot was kept in a large and
I strong wicker basket or cage, generally
on the deck, over which a sail was thrown
MACON, GA„ JULY 20, 1867.
in the middle of the day, to protect her
from the great heat of the climate. Now,
Jocko and she were not good friends. He
was constantly teazing her, and when
she had scolded him in parrot language
until she found it would do no good, she
would try what English she knew, some
times without caring for the purity or
appropriateness of her language. I re-
member a great contest once between the
two —which was followed by a long truce.
Jocko had mischievously pulled aside
the sail that protected Poll from the sun,
and finding close at hand a bucket of
water, that a sailor had set ready for
some future use, he had brought it near
the cage, and amused himself for some
time by dropping his paw into it, and
throwing water over the angry bird. She
became furious, and scolded and screamed
at him, while he grinned and mewed and
chattered, and spattered her all the time.
She tried English—“ Poll, poor, pretty
Poll.” This did not stop him. “ Poll
hungry.” No relief. “Poll sick”—“Poll
gone to bed ” —and still it rained on her.
She used, too, some bad language, that
neither men nor parrots ought to use,
and at last cried out in despair—“ Oh me !
Oh me ! Pretty Poll’s dead—dead —dead.
Go home, boys. Bad boys—drunk—
drunk. Poll’s dead. Here—here,” call
ing dogs, “catch him! Oh! Oh! Dead —
dead.” And then she quit talking Eng
lish, as if she had exhausted her diction
ary.
But Jocko was not to be driven off by
her scolding and outcry. He cared noth
ing for the English language. He was
an African, and he thought himself at
liberty to harrass any parrot, even though
she spoke English. But now a bright
thought seemed to strike him. Bringing
the water bucket pretty near the cage, he
jumped on to the latter, and getting him
self pretty firmly fixed, by putting his
left arm through a large ring on the top
of it, and clutching the edge of it, and
setting his right foot firmly on some of
the rounds, he then reached down with
his left foot and seized the bucket handle
and began to lift it with that foot. He .
told me afterwards, when I asked him*
what he was going to do, that he thought
Poll was a dirty housekeeper, and he was
going to pour the water on her floor, that
she might scour it. He had seen the sailors
do the like in washing up the decks of
the vessel. -
But Jocko had not provided against all
accidents. He had hardly began to raise
the bucket, than he felt such a nip at his
tail, as made him drop it, in his surprise,
and with a howl of pain, kick out his leg,
No. 3.