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and try to scramble down. In his ma
noeuvres to get the bucket up, he had, in
cautiously, not looked after his tail; but
had whisked it into the cage, and Poll
thought that “ his extremity was her
opportunity.” So she flew at it and seized
it in her strong beak, and setting herself
hard against the cage, by clutching one
of its stout upright bars in her talons,
she pulled away with a will on Jocko’s
unhappy tale.
You may be sure, he tried to get down.
But he was fast. lie had an arm through
the ring on the cage, and could not draw
it out without changing his position—
and he could not change his position with
out pulling Poll out of the cage, or get
ting his tail out of her mouth, or else
pulling it off altogether. Two of these
things he could not do, and the last he
did not want to do, because he preferred
being an African monkey, to being an
African man. The tail made the differ
ence, in his estimation, and the difference
was in his favor.
So what could Jocko do? You ought
to have seen him—how he grinned and
made faces, and pulled gently, and then
howled as Poll nipped a little tighter, and
finally he went to downright begging.
“Oh! Miss Polly,” he said in monkey
language, which Poll understood very
-.am so sorry to have made you angry.”
Poll could only mutter through her
clenched beak—“ Play, indeed! You told
me I was dirty, and you would wash me.”
“ Yes ; but I was mistaken. Since I
see you from this j>oint of view, I think
you the handsomest lady I ever saw; and
your parlor is a very palace!”
“Flattery!” said Poll; though sho
loosened her grip a little, after this com
pliment.
“Hot at all. Since I have got a better
view of you, you have taken a very strong
hold upon my affections.”
“ Tail, you mean,” cried Poll, «or are
your affections in your tail ?”
| “ Pray, madam, do not tantalize me.—
You certainly have a powerful grasp up
jj)n any subject that enters your head. I
■think, however, that in this case you are
pFather sharp on your poor adversary.”
“ Oh,” sho answered, “ this is an ex
treme case; and I have taken it into my
head to settle it. Say, do you want your
tail or not ?”
“Want it!” said Jocko, “'of course 1
do, or how shall it bo known I am not a
man ! To settle it, is just what I want!
Let me hear your terms.”
And Poll stated her terms. We have
not room here for all she demanded. But
BXJRKE’S WEEKLY.
he had to take an oath every morning
for the next thirty days, that she was the
greatest and most honorable, and most
obliging and most generous parrot, that
ever lived; or would ever live, and
that he had always respected her, and
would hereafter think only what she al
lowed him to think, and say only what
she permitted him to say. (And he swore.)
And he became very submissive, and she
grew very tyrannical, until at last Jocko
told me, that he might just as well have
parted with his tail at once ; and I con
soled him, by telling him that I ivould
write a tale of the parrot and the mon
key’s tail, and that I would put his pic
ture in with it,
“To point the moral and adorn the
tale.”
THE WHISPERING FAIRY.
Once on a time in the spring of the year,
When the roses were red and the lilies were fair,
Down in a dell where a rivulet purled,
A pretty young Fairy came into the world.
Before her wings grew sho did nothing but pla^
And frolic among the sweet flowers all day,
Or lie on the grass and look up at the trees
As gaily they sported and danced in the breeze,
And watch the white clouds that to her seemed so nigh,
She thought the tall pines that waved proudly on high
Had brushed away some of the blue from the sky.
In a lily she gently was rocked to repose,
And in fresh morning dew she was bathed in the rose,
She danced in the moonlight, and certainly she
Was as happy as any young Fairy could be —
But at length her wings grew, to the king she was brought,
And all that a Fairy should do she was taught,
The invisible mantle was over her thrown,
And into the world she went forth all alone.
The king told her to watch little children all day
And when they were going to do or to say
Anything cruel or wrong, she must go
To their ear and say softly—“ Please do not do so.”
If you listen, dear children, I’m sure you will hear
The Fairy’s voice whispering close to your ear.
The next time yon go to do anything wrong
Please promise to stop them and think of my song.
E. P. M.
Clarksville , Georgia.
following enigma is said to have
been written by Mr. Canning, which for
a time baffled the skill of England to solve:
There is a word of plural number,
A foe to peace and human slumber,
Now, any word you chance to take
By adding S you plural make ;
But if you add an S to this,
How strange is the metamorphosis !
Plural is plural then no more,
And sweet what bitter was before.
Solution. —The word is cares, to which,
by adding S, you have caress.
S@r*Never chew your words. Open
the mouth and let the voice come out. A
student once asked, “ Can virckue, forti
chude, gratichude, or quiechude dwell
with that man who is a stranger to recti
chude?”
•
A little girl, on making her first vis
it to a pig-sty, exclaimed, “Why, grand
pa, I should think the pigs would faint
away—they smell so !”
THE LITTLE WOMAN IN GREEN.
A FAIRY TALE.
BY MRS. THEODOSIA FORD.
(concluded.)
fP O ELLIE went with the
Queen into the great hall
of the palace, where the
little fairies were dancing,
for in honor of Elbe the
fairies gave a ball that night. It
w T a3 not often that the Queen
could find a mortal maiden, who
was as good and true as she was
beautiful ; and when sho did, there was
great rejoicing in the court.
I do not know how I shall tell you of
all the beautiful things Elbe saw in the
wonderful palace, but this I know, that
all the treasures of Fairyland were dis
played that night. The room was hung
with garlands of most exquisite flowers,
and the red roses were rubies and the yel
low roses were topaz, and the white roses
were of opals, and the green leaves wero
of emerald, and so wonderfully were they
wrought, that, although by the Queen’s
order, real roses from her own garden were
mixed in the garlands, it was impossible to
distinguish the one from the other. The
room was lighted by a diamond many
times larger than the “ Koh-i-noor,” and
the light which it gave was more brilliant
than the light of the sun, or of the moon.
In the banqueting hall a table was
spread, and oh, of what dainties ! Such
wonderful pyramids of pure candy, such
jellies and custards and trifles; such
oranges and confections of all kinds, had
never been seen before, even in Fairy
land, for Elbe was a guest whom the
Queen delighted to honor.
All the young gentlemen and young
lady fairies were in their richest dresses of
green, for that is the Queen’s color, and
of course the Court dress—and when the
Queen and Elbe came into the room, all
the ladies rose, and curtsied down to the
ground, and every gentleman bent his
right knee and laid his hand to his heart,
for that is the way in Fairyland in which
to do homage to their Queen.
Then the Queen’s son asked Elbe to
dance, but Elbe felt a little strange, and
besides had only her thick shoes on, and
preferred to stay by the side of the beau
tiful Queen, and look at the others dance;
and then the Poet-laureato wrote a song
expressly for the occasion, and these lines
were in it:
“ Mortal maiden, full of grace,
i rue of heart as fair of face,
ror the poor and suffering caring,
lor the weak the burden bearing,
Ihus wo meet you,
Thus wo greet you,
Thus upon your brow wo trace
loken of tkia fairy • place,”