Then she hated to see me eating with my knife . Well , there it was , pick and nag everlasting . But I s ` pose , Anne , to be fair , I was cantankerous too . I did n't try to improve as I might have done ... I just got cranky and disagreeable when she found fault . I told her one day she had n't complained of my grammar when I proposed to her . It was n't an overly tactful thing to say . A woman would forgive a man for beating her sooner than for hinting she was too much pleased to get him . Well , we bickered along like that and it was n't exactly pleasant , but we might have got used to each other after a spell if it had n't been for Ginger . Ginger was the rock we split on at last . Emily did n't like parrots and she could n't stand Ginger 's profane habits of speech . I was attached to the bird for my brother the sailor 's sake . My brother the sailor was a pet of mine when we were little tads and he 'd sent Ginger to me when he was dying . I did n't see any sense in getting worked up over his swearing . There 's nothing I hate worse 'n profanity in a human being , but in a parrot , that 's just repeating what it 's heard with no more understanding of it than I 'd have of Chinese , allowances might be made . But Emily could n't see it that way . Women ai n't logical . She tried to break Ginger of swearing but she had n't any better success than she had in trying to make me stop saying ' I seen ' and ` them things . ' Seemed as if the more she tried the worse Ginger got , same as me . `` Well , things went on like this , both of us getting raspier , till the CLIMAX came . Emily invited our minister and his wife to tea , and another minister and HIS wife that was visiting them .
I 'd promised to put Ginger away XXXXX some safe place where nobody would hear him ... Emily would n't touch his cage with a ten-foot pole ... and I meant to do it , for I did n't want the ministers to hear anything unpleasant in my house .
day for in nag of over tads than to with