"All right, let's try," said her brother, and, having made quite sure of the direction in which the sea lay, they slowly descended to the ground again. "Find out what you wanted to?" asked the Dodo, who had taken off his gloves, and was blowing into them to take out the creases. "Yes," said Dick, "there are a few houses by the side of the sea about two miles to the left; do you think you could manage to fly as far as that?" The Dodo smiled in a sickly sort of way. "I'm a little out of practise," he faltered. "Well, do you think that if we each took hold of one of your--ahem--wings, we could get along that way?" "You wouldn't crush my gloves?" asked the Dodo, anxiously. "Oh, you could take them off, you know," said Dick, "and put them in your p----" (he was going to say pocket, but suddenly remembered that the Dodo hadn't one)--"in my pocket till we get there, if you like," he added. "What!" cried the Dodo, indignantly, "travel without my gloves! Never! It wouldn't be respectable. I shouldn't think of doing such a thing!" "Oh, well, come, on then; let's try this way," said Dick, putting his arm under one of the Dodo's wings, while Marjorie did the same to the other. "Now then--one--two--three." Slowly, very slowly, the children rose, for the Dodo was rather heavy after all, as he dangled down clumsily and uncomfortably between them. I think they would have managed, however, but just as they had reached the lower branches of the trees, they heard a voice scream furiously-- "_Now_, then, what are you up to?" In their agitation they let go of the Dodo, who, after making several frantic efforts to support himself, fell to the ground with a dull thud. "What are you up to, I say?" said the voice again, and the children could see that the parrot, who had been so insolent to them before, was sitting on one of the branches near them. "Pretty objects you are making of yourselves, I must say," he remarked, sneeringly. "What do you think you are doing, I should like to know?" "I don't see what it has to do with you," said Dick, crossly, while the Dodo, with his eyes shut and his head on one side, ran about rubbing his back with one pinion, and crying, "Oh! oh! oh!" for he had evidently hurt himself very much. "You don't, do you?" said the parrot. "Well, then, it has a great deal to do with me. Trying to fly, weren't you? Well, you are not birds, and it isn't allowed; do you hear? The idea of mere human creatures aping their betters in that way. Flying, indeed! Don't you let me catch you at it again, or you will be sorry for it, I can tell you. Now move on, and walk on your feet in a sensible way, like rational human beings. Go along! What next, I wonder!"