"I do not like that Golliwog," breathed Mrs. Jasher to her host,
when Cockatoo was at the sideboard. "He gives me the creeps."
"Imagination, my dear lady, pure imagination. Why should we not
have a picturesque animal to wait upon us?"
"He would wait picturesquely enough at a cannibal feast,"
suggested Archie, with a laugh.
"Don't!" murmured Lucy, with a shiver. "I shall not be able to
eat my dinner if you talk so."
"Odd that Hope should say what he has said," observed Braddock
confidently to the widow. "Cockatoo comes from a cannibal
island, and doubtless has seen the consumption of human flesh.
No, no, my dear lady, do not look so alarmed. I don't think he
has eaten any, as he was taken to Queensland long before he could
participate in such banquets. He is a very decent animal."
"A very dangerous one, I fancy," retorted Mrs. Jasher, who looked
pale.
"Only when he loses his temper, and I'm always able to suppress
that when it is at its worst. You are not eating your meat, my
dear lady."
"Can you wonder at it, and you talk of cannibals?"
"Let us change the conversation to cereals," suggested Hope,
whose appetite was of the best--"wheat, for instance. In this
queer little village I notice the houses are divided by a field
of wheat.
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