Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-03-29

3is5S1S }ns gG Gl'M N9NNSSA
WNM 81 MWA loopgyr.ghss ; s,,se 1891 by
WVTt7 2YLM mine as any in
s9||%MNh sseo h 1aia "a rieh h ass "a ss
aA years ago." said
Alec, Iii 1t
hadn't been for Bob Jones' parrot"
why, what on earth did the parrot
do to the mine?"
DO to the mine? Oh, nothing;
nothing whatever. It only ruined it,
that was ALL"
Ruined the mine!"
"Yes, it did-as far as I was CON
cerned. at any rate"
but how was that?'
''Well, I'll tell you Bob and I had
been out prospecting, and landed on
really good thing, and Bob went home
to England to get up a syndicate to
work the reef. He had some friends OF
the right sort, men with money, and
the pluck to back good tip when they
got one. Well, he came back in three
and we very soon got to work, and 1t
looked a moral certainty that at the
| end Of a year or SO we should be able to
sell the Gilt Edge at a swinging figure to
a company. But we reckoned without
Bob's beastly parrot For when Bob
went home he had heard song at some
music hall or other. 1t was all the rage
then, with Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay for a
| chorus. An idiotic thing anyhow, but
it was catchy, and Bob and l, in our gooi
| spirits, were perpetually at It All day
| long it was Ta-ra-ra this and Ta-ra-ra
| that and as Bob had shown me how Q
| woman in London, Lottie something,
remember, sang 1t, we were always
high-kicking and trying to wipe the
ground with our back hair
"We were couple of young fools,
no doubt, but 1t did no harm dare
say we should have got sick of 1t In
time But Bob had caught young
parrot, the bush all round was simply
swarming with them, and he taught 1t
the air of Ta-ra-ra, and It was funny
enough, when we were in 1uck's way
and everything looked rosy, to hear the
bird whistling It, for to give the devil
his due it used sometimes TO chime In
with 1t, when Bob and I were talking,
In the neatest way in the world. But
one day the parrot was missing It had
bitten through bar Of Its cage, made
by Bob out Of whisky case, and was
gone. We were sorry at the time, re-
member, and we put the cage outside
our hut with o lot of sugar and stuf1
all about 1t, in the hope of the parrots
coming back. II we had only shot it!
''But one day as we were going across
to the mine we suddenly heard the
well-known refrain from the top Of q
gum. We stopped dead, and while
stayed to watch the parrots move
ments, Bob ran back for the cage, which
we put on bit of open ground ~
temptingly as we could, and then stood
by, good way off, to watch resultA
While we were waiting, we were 40.
tonished to hear Ta-ra-ra-boom from
another tree behind us, and Immediate
ly afterwards Ta-ra-ra-boom from an
other direction, and then the truth
flashed on as. Bob's parrot had been
teaching all the others Tarra-ra-boom.
de-ayi And so it was There was noa
bird In tho bush that did not know IL
and there were thousands Of them. We
laughed at first, SO did tho men at the
mine. There were twelve Of them, all
very decent, well-behaved fellowA But
the parrots kept on al 1t, all the morn
ing. Then they Stacked off about noon,
when they generally have q sleep, and
commenced again about four, and went
on till it was dark. by bedtime we had
got tired Of the joke The ~ h al.
petered out Of the thing.
by daybreak next me-. LII tn>
birds were at It again, and all the time
that we were getting breakfast ready
and eating it the wretched brutes KEEP
steadily on, Ta-ra-ra-boom- To add
to tho evaporation of it not ono in 6
hundred ever finished tho line. but
broke of at the BOOM Converse
onous obligato Of Ta-ra-ras going on
!: and even sitting still to breakfast
seemed difficult We were all very
short-tempered by the time tho mea.
was finished, and as we went out of ths
hut I saw Bob take up his gun W.
got to work, but it was just awful,
tell You. trying to do anything witt
those parrots all about II they hai
all talked at once it wouldn't havt
been so bad, or If they had kept OF
talking without any stoppages. Blu
they used to do 1t one at Q time, q
u1dT 4ALC1Vd4o1 hAo 41OA III BOZ u
Of unexpected directions. Ono wouie
whistle it out loud, the next wouli
drop its voice to a confidential whis
per. the third one wheezed out th,
words al If It had asthma. the fourth
I, would put It as question In ro1ucls
ing, tocular way. It was fairly mad
dening trying to do anything will
: parrots saying Ta-ra-ra-boom at inter
, walls Of minute on all sides Of you.
could see the men pausing in theil
: work in suspense, waiting for the mex
Ta-ra-ra to como, and as for attempt
, ing to talk, It was out OF the question
'If you opened your mouth to speal
3 Ta-ra-ra-boom a parrot overhead woult
, Scream out, and when you got your an
swer you had to take another Ta-ra-ri
3 mixed up with it. Bob was givinf
some directions to one Of tho men
Look here, SO and 50, I expect tn,
' (Ta-ra-ra-boom) up here to day, ane
you must have that bucket-rope in or
, der, for il he sees it as 1t Is he will say
4 (Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay)' and Bol
/: stopped short, looked savagely up into
the gum trees. snd then walked to tn,
tent Ta-ra-ra-boom. said parrot, II
! q loud aside. as he disappeared within
Ard then eutN1th biz gun +
hand tcriedl