"I had it on my mind to tell ye," said he, "when I heered 't ye'd been
'nvited down t' Aunt Gozeman's and Aunt Electry's t' tea; ef they give
ye some o' their green melon an' ginger persarves, do ye manage to
bestow 'em somewhar's without eatin' of 'em, somehow. They're amazin'
proud an' ch'ice of 'em, an' ye don't want to hurt their feelin's, but
ye'd better shove 'em right outer the sasser inter yer britches pocket
'n eat 'em--leastways that 's the way they 'fected me."
Visions of a past mortal suffering flitted across Captain Pharo's face.
"I'll try," I said.
"Ef thar 's melon an' ginger persarves settin' by yer plate, d'ye ask
them two old women, in some kind of genteel s'ciety ructions sort o' a
way, ter go outer the room an' git ye somethin', an' soon 's they've
gone d'ye jump up an' thring a shawl over that darn' parrot o' theirn
't stands there noticin' 'an' swearin', an' chuck 'em in over behind
the wood-box or somewhar's, but don't eat 'em."
"All right," I said, as he shook my hand with suggestive earnestness
once more in parting.
The sisters, by mutual adoption, not by birth, lived together in the
"Laury Gleeson;" the sign of a wrecked schooner nailed up over their
shanty door.
"And why not? We be all a-sailin', been't we?" said Aunt Electry, who
was ninety years old, lighting her pipe; "only I wish 't some 't 's
sailin' solitary had mates 't 's fit for 'em--how is Vesty?"
"I don't know," I began, afflicted with a sort of lightness of head. I
wanted to take out Uncle Benny's pocket-mirror that I carried with me
now. Was I beautiful, and tall, and fair? What had happened me!
"Lectry 's a great girl for straight-for'ard langwidge," said Miss
Gozeman kindly, pitying my confusion; she was only eighty and did not
smoke.
They led me out more nimbly, almost, than I could follow, to show me
the "stock"--some forlorn, fantastic stumps of trees, long dead, all
whitewashed with tender art! the pet coon, the tame crow, the wicked
goat.
There was another treasure; who, as we came in and sat down to tea,
eyed me from his cage with grudging and disfavor: it was the parrot;
and I presume injunctions were upon him to keep still, but I did not
know.
"Does he talk?" I Inquired kindly.
He snapped viciously at the cage.
"A friend 't had him on shipboard gave him to us long ago," explained
Miss Gozeman, with gentle evasion; "we ain't ever been able to break
him of it." What the habit was of which they had not been able to
break him I sadly inferred.
There was a munificent dish of the green melon and ginger preserves by
my plate. I was chatting with my friends, and at the same time
meditating what to do, when the tame crow, who had slyly entered the
house behind us and stolen Miss Gozeman's spectacles, was now
discovered through the window hastening to hide them in the chip-pile.
My entertainers trotted nimbly out after him. I rose, and, lifting the
cover of the stove, dashed in the contents of my saucer--when I was
startled by a shrill voice and a mocking laugh.
"Oh, I see ye! I'll tell!"