PET RAVEN AT HARROW 171 



and that of the gardener, " Holloway," he would 

 repeat in half a dozen different tones. " Come on " 

 he would say, now in a commanding, now in a 

 hectoring, now in a persuasive tone, and, now again 

 in the most confidential of whispers. This last was 

 a great effort. He would bend his body right down 

 to the perch on which he stood, open his wings, 

 and every feather in his body would stand erect or 

 would move in sympathy with it. But his plea- 

 sure was in proportion to his pain. He loved, 

 as a clever parrot does, to call forth a peal of 

 laughter ; and though he could not laugh himself 

 it was almost the only human achievement that he 

 did not attempt his eye showed that he knew all 

 about it. " How's that ? " " Out," was a question 

 and answer which he picked up for himself from a 

 cricket-yard at some little distance. A bad cough, 

 which I had, he managed to imitate so well that 

 people who passed down the adjoining lane, thought 

 it inconsiderate of me to expose a gardener who 

 had such a hacking cough, to all weathers in my 

 garden. He was a capital "catch." Blackberries 

 thrown to him as boys throw a ball to one another 

 when practising themselves at " catch " he would 

 manage to intercept, whether thrown high or low, 

 quickly or slowly, from his central perch, by a 



