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Transcriber's Note

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of corrections
is found at the end of the text.




[Illustration: "Oh, dear! oh, dear me!" Page 85.]

[Illustration: MINNIE and her PETS
  BY MRS. MADELINE LESLIE
  MINNIE'S PET PARROT.]




                       MINNIE'S PET PARROT.


                               BY

                      MRS. MADELINE LESLIE,
  AUTHOR OF "THE LESLIE STORIES," "TIM, THE SCISSORS-GRINDER,"
                              ETC.


                          ILLUSTRATED.


                             BOSTON:
                        LEE AND SHEPARD,
                             1864.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by

A. R. BAKER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

ELECTROTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.




                    TO MY YOUNG FRIEND,

                  HENRY FOWLE DURANT, JR.

                  =These Little Volumes=

               ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

                      BY THE AUTHOR,

  IN THE EARNEST HOPE THAT THEY MAY INCREASE IN HIM THAT
      LOVE OF NATURE AND OF RURAL LIFE WHICH HAS EVER
          EXERTED SO SALUTARY AN INFLUENCE IN THE
              FORMATION OF THE CHARACTERS OF
                    THE WISE AND GOOD.




MINNIE AND HER PETS.

  Minnie's Pet Parrot.
  Minnie's Pet Cat.
  Minnie's Pet Dog.
  Minnie's Pet Horse.
  Minnie's Pet Lamb.
  Minnie's Pet Monkey.




INTRODUCTION.


The object of these little books is not so much to give full, scientific
information with regard to the animals of which they treat, as to bring
before the child such facts concerning them as shall interest him in
their history, awaken a desire to know more of the particular traits of
each, and especially lead him to be kind to them as a part of God's
creation.

Natural history we deem, according to the opinion of an eminent writer,
as "not only the most captivating of the sciences, but the most
humanizing. It is impossible to study the character and habits of the
lower animals without imbibing an interest in their wants and feelings."

Dr. Chalmers, who was famous for his interest in the brute creation,
says, "To obtain the regards of man's heart in behalf of the lower
animals, we should strive to draw his mind toward them. The poor brutes
look, tremble, and give the signs of suffering, as we do. A threatened
blow strikes them with terror, and they have the same distortions of
agony on the infliction of it. Their blood circulates as ours does. They
sicken, and grow feeble with age, and finally die, as we do. They
possess also instincts which expose them to suffering in another
quarter. The lioness, robbed of her whelps, makes the wilderness ring
with her cries; and the little bird, whose tender household has been
stolen, fills and saddens all the grove with her pathetic melody."

The author has been careful to select only facts well authenticated. She
takes this opportunity to acknowledge most gratefully her indebtedness
to those friends who have contributed original anecdotes which have come
under their own observation; and also to state that she has quoted from
most of the popular English works on these subjects, prominent among
which are Jesse, Richardson, and Hamilton, on dogs; Youatt, the Ettrick
Shepherd, and Randall, on sheep; Morris, Brown's Natural History,
Chambers's Miscellany, etc.

She has been greatly encouraged, in the preparation of these volumes for
the young, by the flattering reception of the previous productions of
her pen. If these should meet with similar favor, they may be followed
by other volumes of the same character and objects.

  THE AUTHOR.




MINNIE'S PET PARROT.




CHAPTER I.

MINNIE AND HER PARROT.


In these little books, I am going to tell you about Minnie, her home,
and her pets; and I hope it will teach every boy and every girl who
reads them to be kind to animals, as Minnie was. Minnie Lee had a
pleasant home. She was an only child, and as her parents loved to
please her, they procured every thing which they thought would make her
happy. The first pet Minnie had was a beautiful tortoise-shell kitten,
which she took in her baby arms and hugged tightly to her bosom. After a
time, her father, seeing how much comfort she took with kitty, bought
her a spaniel. He already had a large Newfoundland dog; but Mrs. Lee
was unwilling to have him come into the house, saying that in summer he
drew the flies, and in winter he dirtied her hearth rugs. So Leo, as the
great dog was called, was condemned to the barn, while Tiney could rove
through the parlors and chambers whenever he pleased.

In Minnie's seventh year, her father bought her a Shetland pony and a
lamb, which he told her was called a South Down--a rare and valuable
breed. The little girl now thought her hands quite full; but only the
next Christmas, when her uncle came home from sea, he told her he had
brought an addition to her pets; and true enough, when his luggage came
from town, there was a bag containing a real, live monkey, named Jacko.

These, with the silver-gray parrot, which had been in the family for
years, gave Minnie employment from morning till night.

You will wonder, perhaps, that one child should have so many pets; and,
indeed, the parrot belonged to her mother; but when I tell you that,
though her parents had had six children, she was the only one remaining
to them, and that in her infancy she was very sickly, you will not
wonder so much. The doctor said that their only hope of bringing her up
was to keep her in the open air as much as possible.

"Let her have a run with Leo," he used to say; or, "Get her a horse, and
teach her to ride. That will do her more good than medicine."

When her father came home from town, if he did not see his little
daughter on the lawn, playing with Fidelle, the cat, and Tiney, the dog,
he was almost sure to find her in the shed where Jacko's cage was kept,
with Miss Poll perching on her shoulder.

When visitors called and asked to see her, her mother would laugh, as
she answered, "I'm sure I don't know where the child is, she has so many
pets."

Minnie was not allowed to study much in books; indeed, she scarcely knew
how to read at all; yet she was not an ignorant child