JIMCRACK AND THE JUMBIES. 173 



mad. Fo' truf , me massa, um tink dis a jumbie bud ; 

 he hab ebil sperit in um, sho'. 



" Yo' see um look at me now ? He onderstan' 

 ebry word um say ; ah, ef he ain' do yo' no mischief, 

 it 'cause he hab some reason fer it, an' not 'cause he 

 lub yuh." 



Friday sighed, and regarded the parrot with dis- 

 may expressed in his face. But the bird did not 

 mind ; he only rubbed his beak against Friday's ear, 

 and then flew outside, where his mate was awaiting 

 him. 



" So he got new wife, eh ? You ole Jimcrack, 

 whar yo' pick up purty parrot like a dat to live wiv 

 yo' ? Yo' goin' leave um soon, like yo' leave yo' mate 

 on de ole plantashum. She can't talk, but um un'stan' 

 what he mind ter let her. Jimcrack like humans in 

 dat respec' : he hab two langwidge, one for he wife 

 an' one fer de world in gen'rul. When he say to her, 

 ' Ma dear, um got to go ter hunt ma grub, an' it 

 may be late when um come back, so don' set up, ma 

 dear,' she don' know whar about he go to." 



I reassured him on this point, and narrated how 

 Psittacus had made his dwelling in the palm tree, 

 raised a small family of children, foraged for the fam- 

 ily, and in all respects behaved like the model hus- 

 band that he then appeared to be. 



It may have been noticed that I called my new 

 friend after the companion of Crusoe, his coming to 

 me was so opportune, and he had so many of the 

 good qualities of that excellent Carib. The name in- 

 advertently slipped out, now and then, when I ad- 



