Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-09-26
BIDDY'S BURGLAR.
Valor Wins More Favor Than.
Accomplishments

My father is commercial traveller,
and he is sometimes away from home
for five or six weeks. He always
brings me something when returning
from one of these long trips. and about
"a year ago he brought me Biddy.
heard my mother tell father that
she wished he had brought me some
thing else, for she never could endure
parrot, and Biddy was about as
noisy and hilarious a parrot as one
could well imagine.
But, like many usually good-hu-
mored boys and girls. Biddy seemed
to be subject to fits of mental depres-
sion, and then she was almost as dis
agreeable as sulking boy or girl.
She would snap and snarl and shrek
If any one went near her cage when
she was in one of her low-spirited
moods. and 1 always had feeling that
mother would secretly rejoice if disas-
ter, even unto death, overlook Biddy
some time when she seemed to be at
war with the world.
Biddy was not a pretty bird. Her
plumage was a disagreeable combina-
ton of yellow and green and blue.
and she had fiery red eyes. with a
wicked CLEAN in them, even when
Biddy was most urbane and gracious.
think she despised my mother from
the first. for she always treated her
as an arch enemy. and am quite sure
now that mother spent little time in
vain regrets because of Biddy's lack
of affection for her.
l have never seen a parrot quite as
clever as Biddy. She could say more
things, and say them more distinctly,
than any other parrot 1 have ever
seen.
Her ability in this direction was
really remarkable. But, aside from
such stock expressions as '.Biddy
wants cracker" and '.Biddy wants
her dinner" or ..Poor Biddy," she
rarely said the same thing twice, and
would lift her wings and shrek out 81
sUon't" if asked to repeat one of her
long sentences.
Sometimes she would repeat sen.
fences of ten or twelve words with per-
feet accuracy. and in the exact tone OF
the person speaking them. and again
she would mimic every thing that was
said when a conversation was being
carried on in the same room with her.
1 remember once when good old
Deacon Pratt-who scas a good old
man If he did talk Through his nose
and always in a detected little whine
when he called, and. during his stay,
remarked gloomily that 1--WE are all
miserable worms of the earth. Biddy.
who up to this time had been decently
silent. took up the expression, and. in
the deacon's exact tones, drawled out
I'VE are all miserable worms of the
earth. Yes. yesr'
And. contrary to her usual good
taste, she kept saying it. varying il
sometimes by whining out in the mos,
lugubrious tones:
I'VE are all worms! Biddy's mis-
cradle worml You're a worm! I'm Z
worm! We are all miserable wormsr
Then she suddenly burst into such
shrieks of laughter that mother. will
a crimson face, carried Biddy's Gag,
out of the room and hung it up at tn.
end of the porch. where she could still
be heard going on with her enliveninf
discourse on ''worms."
After the deacon's departure. mother
gave Biddy deserved talking to-
because of her discourtesy.
Biddy listened in dignified silence
and. when the reprimand was at Al
end, hung her head. and said. in Chi
most despairing tone: