Connecticut western news., 1881-05-11
TEE GRAY AFRICAN PARROT.
BY AMY RANDOLPH.

Aunt Mahala's birthday came on the first day of March, with the winds and the tempests, and the first little green spears of the crocus bulbs and jonquils.
 Aunt Mahala was my maiden grand aunt. She was very eccentric, very rich, and very hard to please, and very apt at taking offence.
 "There is no pleasing Aunt Mahala," said my sister Kate, rather dolefully. Now Kate was only eighteen, with jet black hair, deep eyes like wells of hazel light, cheeks just touched with rose, and the prettiest of winning ways-and it is highly probable that Aunt Mahala found her too pretty. Even seventy years old is not too advanced an age, it would seem, for jealousy to knaw its vitals.
 "Affected thing P was Aunt Mahalas verdict. And Miss LOIS Levinus, staid maiden of six and thirty, suited her as little.
 "I hate your prim old maids" said Aunt Mahala.
 Bat 1t was of paramount necessity so at least every one said-that Aunt Mahala must in some way be ''suited For she had sixty thousand dollars of her own, and had of late evinced very unpleasant curiosity as to hospitals, ref uges, and unsectarian homes
 "Paul," said my mother, piteously, "you must try your chance"
 "Yes," said Kate, "she has never yet had an opportunity to quarrel with you, dear Paul."
 "But how am to manage it." I said, dubiously, yet not in despair.
 "Give her something nice for her birthday" suggested Kate, whose wo- mans wit was ever on the qui vive in my behalf.
 "But what ?" I demanded, clutching my hair in an ecstasy of perplexity. "A pair of spectacles Eh ?''
 "That will never do in the world p cried Kate. "Aunt Mahala brides her. self upon her excellent eyesight."
 "Worse and worse," said my mother. ''I sent her some tuberoses and sweet geranium leaves last week, and she sent them back in rage, desiring to know if l thought she was getting ready for her funeral.,'
 GA pious book ?'
 "She never reads," said Kate.
 "A poodle or 8 Skye terrier?"
 But my mother made a warning gesture with her two hands. "She detests dogs !''
 |" know !" I exclaimed, brightening up all of sudden. "Jones has an African gray parrot to sell, cheap, at secondhand. He bought it of an old sailor, who ha d, without doubt, stolen it And it makes so much noise that the boarders in Jones's house have warned the landlady that if Jones'. parrot don't leave the house they will r
 Kate clasped her hands joyously.
 "The very thing p cried she. "Aunt Mahala is extravagantly fond of birds and she has always sighed for a req talking parrot"
 "But why has she never had one ? asked my mother.
 "Because she is 8 greatdeal too sting, to buy anything that costs money, answered Kate, with true feminin animus. '' ''Pauls inspiration is tn correct one Aunt Mahala cannot resis a gray African parrot"
 So I drove the best bargain coul, with Jones. Fifty dollars was put for salaried individual like myself
 there was no denying that. And Jones' , parrot was certainly under a disadvan } tage, as regarded the other boarder and the landlady. But, then, Jone represented that talking gray parrots . particularly those who boasted thei nativity beside "Afric's sunny four ) tains," were cheap, even at hundre 3 dollars. And had in the course of m ? negotiations incautiously let slip th ! fact that I wanted gray African parrc a very much, indeed. So we compromise t for forty-five dollars, with the cage an
 fixtures, including about three yards 5 gilt chain thrown in. And sent m ' parrot, done up in layers of brow e paper, with sundry interstices f. g ventilation, to No. IT Maidenhair Cour d where Aunt Mahala lived in an old rt d brick house that looked like fami 5 vault.
 n "You're sure he's good talker l. said l, little anxiously, to Jones. |. "Talker cried Jones. "Why, .t O9 only wish you could hear him. He if out-talk any man, woman or child in t1 [. city of New York. Quotes poetry, t
 -Casabianca, Hail Columbia, Wat Hymns, and all that sort of thing" g. I beamed all over. It was certa 5, that my aunt Mahala could not fail 2. be delighted nov.
 N She was delighted. At least that W
 what my aunt's companion, one Mi