"Did you get anything with my--" she asked.
"Yes; it's out in the hall with my shawl."
"What did--"
"It's a parrot," said Susan.
"A parrot!" cried Mrs. Lathrop, betraying as much feeling as it was in
her to feel.
"Without any head," Susan added wearily.
"Without any head!"
Then Miss Clegg straightened up in her seat and opened her eyes.
"There ain't no need o' bein' so surprised," she said in that peculiar
tone with which one who has spent another's money always defends his
purchase,--"it's a stuffed parrot without any head."
"A stuffed parrot without any head!" Mrs. Lathrop repeated limply, and
her tone was numb and indescribable.
"How much did it--" she asked after a minute.
"I bid it in for one dollar 'n' ninety-seven cents,--I was awful
scared f'r fear it would go over your two dollars, an' it wasn't
nothin' that I'd ever want, so I couldn't 'a' taken it off your hands
if it _had_ gone over your money."
"I wonder what I can do with it," her neighbor said feebly.
"You must hang it in the window so high 't the head don't show."
"I thought you said it didn't have no head."
Miss Clegg quitted the sofa abruptly and came over to her own chair;
the tea appeared to be beginning to take effect.
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