The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-08-24
NAT LASK'S PARROT.
Story of q Remarkable Man and a
Remarkable Bird.

Remarkable Bird.
ssEver hear of Nat Lask's parrot?"
asked Jim Gordon, of Little Rock.
"Never was such a remarka BILE parrot,
don't think. But then, Nat Lask was
somewhat of remarkable man. He
was an old Arkansas and Mississippi
river boatsman. He used to run be.
tween Little Rock and New Orleans in
the good old times before the war. He
owned twenty niggers once, and they
all got their freedom just because Nat
was such a remarkable man. There
was good many niggers running away
about that time, and making their run
for good. Nat gave it out that he'd
like to see any of his get away. For
every one that got away, he said, he'd
set another free. Less than a week
after that one of Mats best niggers
turned up missing, and he couldn't be
found. Over the border, sure. The
runaway's wife belonged to Nat.
"'Suse,' said Nat, dye know whar
Joe is?'
Yes, maSsa.
"'Wall then, you jes' go long an Jine
him!".
80 he kept his word and set one
slave free because another had sue
ceeded in running away, and he showed
whata remarkable man he was by set
ting free the wife of the fugitive. And
Nat wouldn't take back his offer either,
and his niggers kept running away,
and he kept setting others free to
match 'em, until he hadn't one left.
Don't make no diff nce,' Nat used
to say. Nobody didn' 'bleege me to
set my niggers free.
Just about the time the war broke
out Nat was in New Orleans taking on
cargo. On the levee one day he was
passing an old woman who was selling
parrots, when one of the birds yelled
out:
damn foolr'
THAT fetched Nat up standing, and
ne asked the woman which parrot had
addressed him in such familiar tones.
He knows me, said Nat, but swar
never knowed him.
NAT didn't have to wait for the old
woman to tell him which parrot it was,
Tor the bird yelled out its compliments
70 MIN again on the spot, and Nat was
so tickled with the parrot that he
bought It. He was SO taken up with
ms new companion that he paid no at
tention to anything else all the way
ha fvs, 60
ne arrived there he gave up his boat.
Goin' to quit boatin', he said. It'll
take all my time now on to tend to this
parrot
And if he didn't quit, right there
ana then, | hope to holler. He tied
himself up to that parrot and had no
time for anything or anybody. Then
the war began to stir things up, and
one day Nat said:
Ihars goln' ter be the deuce ter paw
round hyah fore long, an take to the
woodsr
He was good as his word. He took
ms gun and his parrot, went way back
into the wilderness along Big Mann
melee creek and put up a snug log
caoln. And it was there that the par
TOT came out strong. The woods were
lun OF game-wild turkey, deer, bear,
Pantner. The creek held plenty of wild
oucks and geese. Nat trained the par
roV 10 hunt. The bird got so he could
give all the calls and cries of the wild
turkey better than the wild turkey
could itself, and he never missed get
ung the right call or cry in at just the
.ignt time, He found out that lost
iawn' or fawn hidden by it's mother,
could summon its mother or some other
aeer quickly to where it was by a.
plaintlve bleating, and the parrot got
:. On 70 that bleat only too quick. He i'm
l'ateo the unearthly screech of the
panther so ably that Nat used to say it
vas nothing out of the common for
D0ooy-that was the parrots name
call as many as dozen big fellows
asound the cabin of an evening and set
suen all to fighting at once. Bobby
.ouion't only do the quaclx of a duck or
e gable of goose to perfection, but
couid manipulate those cries SO that
you would think he was a whole flock
~ aacks or geese. So, if there were
sacks or geese flying over, it was no
,a .eA AZ all for Bobby to let himself
.oose Just as il 1t was o dozen or SO
ssH' laooesiEg together, aad Aging