`` Why , she scrubbed the kitchen floor every second day , '' Mrs. Lynde told Marilla Cuthbert indignantly , `` and if you could see it now ! I had to hold up my skirts as I walked across it . '' Finally , Mr. Harrison kept a parrot called Ginger . Nobody in Avonlea had ever kept a parrot before ; consequently that proceeding was considered barely respectable . And such a parrot ! If you took John Henry Carter 's word for it , never was such an unholy bird . It swore terribly . Mrs. Carter would have taken John Henry away at once if she had been sure she could get another place for him . Besides , Ginger had bitten a piece right out of the back of John Henry 's neck one day when he had stooped down too near the cage . Mrs. Carter showed everybody the mark when the luckless John Henry went home on Sundays . All these things flashed through Anne 's mind as Mr. Harrison stood , quite speechless with wrath apparently , before her . In his most amiable mood Mr. Harrison could not have been considered a handsome man ; he was short and fat and bald ; and now , with his round face purple with rage and his prominent blue eyes almost sticking out of his head , Anne thought he was really the ugliest person she had ever seen . All at once Mr. Harrison found his voice . `` I 'm not going to put up with this , '' he spluttered , `` not a day longer , do you hear , miss . Bless my soul , this is the third time , miss ... the third time ! Patience has ceased to be a virtue , miss . I warned your aunt the last time not to let it occur again ... and she 's let it ... she 's done it ... what does she mean by it , that is what I want to know . That is what I 'm here about , miss . '' `` Will you explain what the trouble is ? '' asked Anne , in her most dignified manner .
She had been practicing it considerably of late to have it in good working order when school began ; but it had no apparent effect XXXXX the irate J. A. Harrison .
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