My entertainers trotted nimbly out after him. I rose, and, lifting the cover of the stove, dashed in the contents of my saucer--when I was startled by a shrill voice and a mocking laugh. "Oh, I see ye! I'll tell!" I had forgotten to cover the parrot. "You are no gentleman if you do!" I retorted, forgetting with whom or what I was talking. "Shut up!" said the parrot, and laughed. "I see ye, d--n ye! I'll tell!" At all events I turned, with the intention of going out to assist the ladies in their search for the spectacles, when the scene through the window held me for a moment spellbound. The crow, having accomplished his mischievous device, was perched near by, gravely regarding the search of the two estimable and time-honored women, who were peering with their faces near the earth, and their backs turned unconsciously; when the cherished goat, creeping maliciously up, made a rush at them from the rear, and pitched them both into the chip heap. This unspeakably base proceeding had the result, however, of discovering to them the glasses, with which they soon after entered, smiling. "Bill often hides our glasses," said Aunt Electry. "Does the goat often bunt you over?" I inquired, with dismay. "Shut up!" said the parrot, at the sound of my voice. "Oh, I see ye! I'll tell!" My kind friends gave him a sharp glance, but considerately did not look at me. They saw my emptied preserve plate, however, and concluding that I had taken advantage of their absence the more greedily to gorge myself on its contents, they generously piled it full again of what they imagined to be the same coveted substance. Seeing this, the parrot shrieked with fiendish joy. "Indeed it is excellent----" I began. "Oh, stow your gab!" sneered the parrot, in a suddenly gruff bass voice. Aunt Electry rose and stamped her foot at him. "He only knows what he 's been taught long ago--by a friend," said Aunt Gozeman reassuringly; "he can't--tell anything new, right out!" All the crime they imputed to me then was gluttony in the matter of preserves! Very well; I preferred that. "They were really so delightful," I began, with the natural reaction from my qualms. "Oh, wur-r-r!" interrupted that horrible grating voice, and then laughed high and loud. The sisters in affliction rose and bore the cage out into the shed But I heard oaths and cackles of malicious intention fired at me through the door. "Sing 'We be a-sailin',' sister," said Aunt Electry, when we had retired again to the fireside. Miss Gozeman obediently began, in a soft, timid tremulo. "We are _eout_ on the ocean _sail_ing," came in mocking, strident accents from the wood-shed; "Oh, h--ll! give us a rest!" But dear Aunt Gozeman sang right on, smiling pitifully: "'To our home beyond the tide.'"