THE THREE ONES. 



Dr. Miller is very fond of pets and in 

 his office he has three that he calls "The 

 Three Ones." They are Polly, the par- 

 rot ; Dickie, a canary, and Tootsey, a 

 handsome tiger cat. 



"The Three Ones'- are the best of 

 friends and afford a great deal of amuse- 

 ment to the people that call at the Doc- 

 tor's office. 



Polly is a great talker and is the most 

 interesting of the three. She knows the 

 names of the canary and the cat and car- 

 ries on quite a one-sided conversation 

 with them. 



"Polly and Dickie are going to Bris- 

 tol to-day" is a favorite remark of Pol- 

 ly's. 



She enjoys hearing Dickie sing and 

 will say, "Dickie, sing for Polly." If the 

 bird does not sing she will say, "Bad 

 Dickie ; naughty boy," and put her head 

 under her wing and go to sleep. It 

 makes her very angry if. anyone talks 

 or makes a noise when he is singing. 

 "Stop! Hark!" she cries, until the noise 

 ceases. She tries to imitate Dickie's 

 singing, and as her voice is nearly as 

 musical as a fish horn, she only succeeds 

 in miaking a simpleton of herself. 



"Come, Tootsey ; come, kitty," and 

 Polly coaxes the cat upon the table 

 where the cage is kept. If Tootsey 

 walks around the cage and her tail hap- 

 pens to slip between the bars, Polly 

 gives it a tweak quick as a flash and the 

 cat gets down from the table in a hurry. 

 Polly will be so pleased at her little joke 

 that she gives what Dr. Miller calls "a 

 regular fat man's laugh." 



One might think that Tootsey would 

 profit by the experience, but she does 

 not. She is of a trusting nature and 

 the next time Polly calls her in a wheed- 

 ling tone, she jumps upon the table as 

 readily as before. 



Polly will cry, "Hello, Central ! Hello ' 

 Hello !" in exact imitation of the Doc- 



tor's voice, but what pleases him most is 

 when she cries in the tone of angry im- 

 patience that he uses when he cannot get 

 central. 



There is generally plenty of fun when 

 Dr. Miller lets Polly and Dickie out of 

 their cages. Tootsey is very jealous of 

 them then and does not like to have the 

 Doctor pet them. Dickie is so tame that 

 he will fly upon the Doctor's shoulder or 

 upon his finger if he holds it out. 



Polly will chase Tootsey all around 

 the office, screaming at the top of her 

 voice. Every piece of paper she gets 

 hold of, she tears into bits and she usu- 

 ally makes such a litter that the Doctor 

 is glad to get her back into the cage 

 again. 



Dr. Miller once had an elderly lady 

 in charge of his office. She was very 

 fond of tea and would often express a 

 wish for a cup of the beverage. The 

 lady was surprised one day at hearing 

 Polly say, "How I would like a good 

 'Cup of tea !" The parrot imitates the 

 tone as well as the words she hears used 

 and for this reason is all the more 

 amusing. 



One day a man suffering with a terri- 

 ble headache came to the office. The 

 Doctor was not in, but was expected any 

 minute, so the man waited for him. His 

 head pained him so badly that he could 

 not help groaning, and would cry, "Oh, 

 how my head aches ! Jerusalem ; how it 

 does ache !" and he would hold his hand 

 to his head and groan. Polly heard this 

 repeated so often that, by tlae time the 

 Doctor returned she had it to perfec- 

 tion, and now repeats it quite frequent- 

 ly. She does not forget to put in the 

 groans, and to hear her a stranger might 

 well believe that she was dying with 

 pain. 



Sometimes Polly will talk and scold 

 all day, crying "Polly's a good girl to- 

 day. Polly's good. Good Polly. Let 



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