After falling into the hands of the unscrupulous tug men, Polly entered on one of the darkest periods. of his long- and exciting career. kept up in the forecastle of the tu: where very little daylight trickled through. One. day, however, the master of the tug, who was a friend of the parrot's rightful owner, heard strange noises coming from the fore part of the vessel. They were viously the plaintive cries of his friend's parrot, Rescued from the clutches of his kidnappers, Polly was kept ashore until the beginning of is Year, when he was handed back to master.
After this the unpleasant experience, was morose for several months, and seemed to have lost much of his extremely extensive vocabulary. But a few weeks of life at sea set him in high spirits again and now he is as lively as ever.
The seafaring parrot has a distinct tive personality, In the first place. he is a very moral bird. Unlike most parrots, he shuns bad language, and he is never heard to swear. He is also a strict teetotaller, Only once has he been drunk, and that experience seems to have taught him lesson. During very cold weather up in Newchwang, the parrot was given some whisky mixed with sugar to bring warmth into his frozen body As soon as the liquor took effect. the parrot seemed to lose all control of himself,-and swung wildly around his cage for a quarter of an hour or He has never touched any into xi ing drink from that day to thi: refusing whisky, beer and other liquor which hag been offered to him at different times,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.