“You little thief!  Stealing my food, are you?”

The parrot sat there, but said never a word.  He merely raised one of his claws and sleeked up the feathers on the back of his neck, in the way his family know so well.  Then, raising the feathers of his crest, he gave utterance to a very faint shriek.

“Get out of this, you rascal!” I cried and immediately got up and went toward him with the purpose of putting him out.

I approached the table very rapidly, expecting that the bird would fly away.  But he remained motionless.  I was about to lay rude hands on him, but I desisted.

“Why do violence to the creature?  Why mar the serenity of this peaceful vale?” I said to myself.  “And why make such ado about a little fruit when there is abundance on every hand?”

Happening just then to glance at the fruit, it seemed to me that it had not been disturbed.

I examined it more closely, and began to feel I had done the parrot great injustice.  There it lay, just as I had left it the night before; there was no evidence whatever of its having been picked at, and I came to the comforting conclusion that the handsome bird had broken no moral law.

The parrot rose greatly in my esteem at this happy discovery.

“Friend Parrot,” said I, “I beg pardon for having so rashly jumped to the conclusion that you had been guilty of theft.  I believe that you have touched nothing of the things which belong to me.  Indeed, I am sure that you have not.  That you have so scrupulously regarded the rights of property is to me the source of infinite gratification, and fills me with the highest admiration of your character.  To show you that I am disinclined to let virtue go unrewarded, I accord you my permission to stay here while I am eating my breakfast, and when I have finished, you too may eat some, if you like.”

Then, having arranged my toilet, I began to partake of the good things that lay on the table, the parrot all the while looking at me with lively interest.  I could not help being amused at his significant performances.  He turned his knowing head one way, and then another, now sidewise toward the fruits, and then obliquely up at me, as I sat enjoying the repast, enlivening his gestures with gentle prattle, and yet never making a single demonstration in the direction of my food.  He put me in such good humor that I was impelled to say to him: 

“Friend Parrot, I don’t mind being sociable; and if you are inclined to do me the favor of honoring me with your company, I most respectfully invite you to partake of this humble collation.”  And, taking up one of the choicest nuts in the collection, I handed it to him forthwith.

He took it promptly, and proceeded to crack and munch it in regular parrot fashion.

“You must excuse me,” I resumed, “that my viands are not of the choicest cooking, and that I have no servants to wait upon my highly esteemed guest, and that there are no silver knives and forks and spoons to eat with in the latest civilized style, but I have rid myself of all those things, and am glad of it.”