"
Mr. Treadwell, who had been looking over the papers on which he had
written down the different parts of the play, looked up quickly when he
again heard the strange voice. He was just about to ask who had called
out when something fluttered down out of the stage tree which was to be
set up in the orchard scene. The tree was off to one side, in what are
called in theater talk, the "wings." Out of the tree fluttered something
with flapping wings.
"It's a big owl!" cried George Watson.
"Don't let it get hold of your hair or it'll pull it all out!" called
Sue. "Owls feets gets tangled in your hair," and she put her hands over
her head.
"Pooh! They don't either!" cried Helen Newton.
The children were rushing here and there about the stage, and Mr.
Treadwell was trying to see where the strange bird was going to light,
when Bunny Brown cried out:
"'Tisn't an owl at all! It's Mr. Jed Winkler's parrot!"
And when the fluttering bird had come to rest on top of the stage barn,
it was seen that it was just what Bunny said--a big, green parrot. There
it perched, picking at a make believe shingle with its hooked bill, and
calling in its shrill voice:
"No tramps allowed! No tramps allowed! Call the dog! Here, Towser! Give
him a cold potato and let him go! Bow wow!"
Then how all the children laughed!
"Why, it surely is Mr.
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