“The first time I ever heard her speak was one day when I was talking to the maid, at the bottom of the stairs, and heard what I then considered to be a child call out, ‘Payne (the maid’s name), I am not well, I’m not well!’ And on my saying, ‘What is the matter with that child?’ she replied, ‘It is only the Parrot, she always does so when I leave her alone, to make me come back;’ and so it proved, for on her going into the room, the Parrot stopped, and then began laughing quite in a jeering way. “It is singular, that whenever she is affronted in any way she begins to cry, and when pleased, to laugh. If any one happens to cough or sneeze, she says, ‘What a bad cold.’ One day when the children were playing with her, the maid came into the room, and on their repeating to her several things which the Parrot had said, Poll looked up, and said quite plainly, ‘No I didn’t.’ Sometimes when she is inclined to be mischievous, the maid threatens to beat her, and she often says, ‘No you won’t.’ She calls the Cat very plainly, ‘Puss, Puss,’ and then answers, ‘_Mew_;’ but the most amusing part is, that whenever I want to make her call it, and to that purpose say, ‘Puss, Puss,’ myself, she always answers, ‘_Mew_,’ till I begin mewing, and then she begins calling ‘Puss’ as quick as possible. She imitates every kind of noise, and barks so naturally, that I have known her to set all the Dogs on the parade at Hampton Court barking, and I dare say, if the truth was known, wondering what was barking at them! and the consternation I have seen her cause in a party of Cocks and Hens by her crowing and chuckling has been the most ludicrous thing possible. She sings just like a child, and I have more than once thought it was a human being; and it is most ridiculous to hear her make what we should call a false note, and then say, ‘Oh la!’ and burst out laughing at herself, beginning again quite in another key. She is very fond of singing, ‘Buy a Broom,’ which she says quite plainly; but, in the same spirit as in calling the Cat, if we may say, with a view to make her repeat it, ‘Buy a broom,’ she always says ‘Buy a _brush_,’ and then laughs as a child might do when mischievous. She often performs a kind of exercise which I do not know how to describe, except by saying that it is like the lance exercise. She puts her claw behind her, first on one side and then on the other, then in front, and round over her head, and whilst doing so, keeps saying, ‘Come on, come on!’ and when finished, says ‘Bravo, beautiful!’ and draws herself up. Before I was as well acquainted with her as I am now, she would stare in my face for some time, and then say, ‘How d’ye do, Ma’am?’ this she invariably does to strangers. One day, I went into the room where she was, and said, to try her, ‘Poll, where is Payne gone?’ and to my astonishment, and almost dismay, she said, ‘Down stairs.’ “That looks very much as if it understood what was said to it,” remarked Harry.