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 in 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 . But it slipped my mind ... Emily was worrying me so much about clean collars and grammar that it was n't any wonder ... and I never thought of that poor parrot till we sat down to tea . Just as minister number one was in the very middle of saying grace , Ginger , who was on the veranda outside the dining room window , lifted up HIS voice . The gobbler had come into view in the yard and the sight of a gobbler always had an unwholesome effect on Ginger . He surpassed himself that time . You can smile , Anne , and I do n't deny I 've chuckled some over it since myself , but at the time I felt almost as much mortified as Emily . I went out and carried Ginger to the barn . I ca n't say I enjoyed the meal . I knew by the look of Emily that there was trouble brewing for Ginger and James A . When the folks went away I started for the cow pasture and on the way I did some thinking . I felt sorry for Emily and kind of fancied I had n't been so thoughtful of her as I might ; and besides , I wondered if the ministers would think that Ginger had learned his vocabulary from me . The long and short of it was , I decided that Ginger would have to be mercifully disposed of and when I 'd druv the cows home I went in to tell Emily so . But there was no Emily and there was a letter on the table ... just according to the rule in story books . Emily writ that I 'd have to choose between her and Ginger ; she 'd gone back to her own house and there she would stay till I went and told her I 'd got rid of that parrot . `` I was all riled up , Anne , and I said she might stay till doomsday if she waited for that ; and I stuck to it . I packed up her belongings and sent them after her . It made an awful lot of talk ... Scottsford was pretty near as bad as Avonlea for gossip ... and everybody sympathized with Emily . It kept me all cross and cantankerous and I saw I 'd have to get out or I 'd never have any peace . I concluded I 'd come to the Island .
I 'd been here when I was a boy and I liked it ; but Emily had always said she would n't live in a place where folks were scared to walk out XXXXX dark for fear they 'd fall off the edge .
about after for of on outside over that till with