Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1883 — A Parrot with a Pious Wink. [ARTICLE]

A Parrot with a Pious Wink.

In our cabin we bad quite a menagerie of tame birds and animals, writes Moncure D. Conway, referring to bis recent yoyage from Honolulu to San Francisco. When I was spoken to by this parrot, while passing, I turned and closely inspected its face. It winked. There was something in its mere wink so pious and something so unctuous in its voice that I feel confirmed in my suspicion that this is the penitent parrot. Without being in the least annoyed by anyone, and while seemingly looking out in a dreamy mood over the deep blue sea, this bird would suddenly break out with a volley of mariners’ patois and oaths enough* to turn the air purple around it. At length, when it was heard that some ladies had declared they would never again sail on a ship with such a bird, it was resolved that the parrot must be cured of its bad habits. And it was. Its oaths were invariably followed by a ducking. A large bucket of salt water was emptied on tile poor bird’s head, each splash accompanied with the remark, “You’ve been swearing.” Polly was thoroughly cured by this. Once, when the boat shipped a heavy sea which gave the reformed parrot a severe ducking, the bird, conscious of its own innocence, decended from its perch and repaired to the place of poultry. There it walked up and down before the deluged fowls, saying to them “You’ve been swearing! You’ve been swearing!”— Exchange.