169 



— the better Tom — Tompkins 

 — seeing of you." 



Polly listened to this attentively. 



At last one day when Punch was singing it, she 

 burst into a peal of laughter. Punch stopped as if 

 abashed. Then 

 Polly spoke for 

 the first time since 

 Punch had come. 

 " Sing, Punch, 

 sing," she said. 

 '' Poor Punch, 



After a while 

 Punch began to 

 singf aofain. Then 

 Polly burst into 

 peal after peal of 

 harsh laughter. 



' Sing, Punch, Sing" 



It was very amusing to watch the two parrots. 

 Again and again Polly would ask Punch to sing. 

 Then, as soon as he did so, she would begin to 

 laugh, and Punch would stop singing and look 

 sulky. 



One lovely spring afternoon, the parrots' cages 



