Then he whistled, as if he were
calling a dog. You have no idea what a racket he made. I was afraid
that some of the servants might hear him and come to see what was the
matter. Then, of course, I would be turned out of the room before I
had finished examining all the pretty things. I turned around and
shook my fist at him and chattered at him as savagely as I knew how,
but he kept on, first making that hoarse cry and then whistling as if
calling to a dog.
I determined to stop him in some way or another, so, not waiting to
put down the gold dollar or the little carnelian ring, which were
tightly clenched in one hand, I sprang down from the bureau. Running
up the wire flower-stand below the cage, I shook my fist directly
under his beak. It only made him noisier than ever, and he flew about
the cage like something crazy.
"Be still, won't you? you silly thing!" I shrieked, and in my
desperation I made a grab through the bars at his tail-feathers. A
whole handful came out, and that seemed to make him wilder than
before. He beat himself against the top of the cage and screamed so
loud that I thought it would be better to leave before any one heard
him and came in.
So I jumped across to the cabinet near the window, where the big blue
dragon sat. Then I remembered the sugar-plums inside and stopped for
just one taste. I lifted off the dragon's ugly head and was reaching
my hand down inside for one of those delicious sweetmeats, when in
walked Miss Patricia.
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