THE HOUSE OF THE GRANDMOTHERS.CHAPTER VII.—How the Parrot Helped.

THE HOUSE OF THE GRANDMOTHERS.CHAPTER VII.—How the Parrot Helped.

But there was something more to be done than just to say, “Come, Baby! come to mama,” to get Mary Ellen to creep again.

“COME GET THE BOO’FUL BIRD!”

“COME GET THE BOO’FUL BIRD!”

“COME GET THE BOO’FUL BIRD!”

Mary Ellen’s papa, mama, and maternal grandmama all got down on the floor at the opposite end of the room, and smiled and held out hands and coaxed and chirruped; and Mary Ellen smiled in return and crowed and jounced her little self up and down, and seemed ever so many times to be on the very point of starting to go, but after all did not once make any effort to get over on her little hands and knees and creep. It ended every time in her sitting there and reaching for them to come over and get her.

“She’ll never do it again,” said Mama Nan.

“Perhaps she hasn’t at all,” said Papa Dick. “She may just have rolled there. Do youknowthat she crept?”

“Oh! she crept,” said Mrs. Camp. “I examined her hands and knees.”

Now there was one thing Mary Ellen had always wanted more than anything else and many times had reached up her little hands for—the red and green parrot on the bronze perch. But though the bird had an equal curiosity about the baby, Mama Nan would never let Dom Pedro be brought near her child for fear that cruel hooked bill might bite!

But now, suddenly, she said, “See here, Dick! go get the parrot!”

When the bird was brought and began to shout, “Holloa, Young Woman!” which was Papa Dick’s usual salutation to his daughter, Mary Ellen began to jump herself up and down again and pat-a-cake in a perfect frenzy of delight.

“Come get the boo’ful bird!” called Mama Nan. “Come to mama, baby, and have the pretty bird!”

But Mary Ellen seemed to have lost all knowledge of her new art of locomotion. She continued to jounce and crow, while her papa had to grasp hard hold of the parrot to keep him from flying out of his hands.

MARY ELLEN AND DOM PEDRO.

MARY ELLEN AND DOM PEDRO.

MARY ELLEN AND DOM PEDRO.

In the midst of the excitement Old Lady Lois came in. The reason of the queer scene was explained to her. “Bless your hearts!” exclaimed she. She crossed the floor, lifted the child, poised her a moment on her feet, then gently laid her down, face forward; and at that second the parrot flapping his wings in a new struggle to fly, Mary Ellen, with a great crow set off on hands and knees to meet him.

Quite around the nursery she followed after her papa and the brilliant bird. Then, as reward, she was taken up on her papa’s knee, and let to lay her little hand upon the feathery green back and to stroke the gorgeous green and red tail feathers. As for the parrot—of course he did not bite! he only said, “And what d’ye think now, Young Woman?”

After this, Mary Ellen could creep; could creep with the greatest velocity. But whenever she crept, and wherever, her journeys always ended at the foot of the bronze parrot-perch, and Dom Pedro always leaned over and spoke to her, and said as he peered down at the golden-haired little girlie, “Holloa, Young Woman! holloa!”

Ella Farman Pratt.

“Berry flowers,Cherry flowers,We saw to-day,All so white,O, so white!“But the berries,And the cherries,”Said little Fay,“Will be red,O, so red!”

“Berry flowers,Cherry flowers,We saw to-day,All so white,O, so white!“But the berries,And the cherries,”Said little Fay,“Will be red,O, so red!”

“Berry flowers,Cherry flowers,We saw to-day,All so white,O, so white!

“Berry flowers,

Cherry flowers,

We saw to-day,

All so white,

O, so white!

“But the berries,And the cherries,”Said little Fay,“Will be red,O, so red!”

“But the berries,

And the cherries,”

Said little Fay,

“Will be red,

O, so red!”

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