4 THE PAllEOT TRIBES. 
It was a wretched neighbourhood, that in which the shoemaker 
lived, and the room occupied by his lodger was dingy and most 
meanly furnished; it, however, suited Herr Wouter, for he was 
a miser, the sole aim of his life being to pass for a miserably 
poor wretch. But the shoemaker found out the secret, or rather 
his wife did. One evening she hurried breathless to Carl’s work- 
shop to tell him that the two stone jars, which appeared to 
contain the meal with which Herr Wouter made his porridge, 
were, in truth, full of gold pieces, with just a sprinkling of meal 
on the top. The result was that Carl Schnop and his wife 
resolved to rob and murder Herr Wonter, who, so far from 
being a beggar, could have weighed his meal-jars against the 
money-bags of any burgomaster in the city, and who was an 
outcast by choice. 
Herr Wouter kept a parrot, a wonderfully clever bird, so 
clever, indeed, that on Carl Schnop being brought to trial, there 
were not wanting witnesses to swear they had frequently heard 
both men and women talking and singing in his room. They 
were mistaken; nobody either talked or sang in Herr Wouter’s 
room but himself and the grey parrot. 
The instrument with which the guilty shoemaker resolved to 
slay his lodger, was the formidable great-faced hammer with 
which he beat out his sole-leather. So he and his wife crept 
up the stairs so stealthily, and entered the miser’s room with 
their naked feet in so cat-like a manner, that they were fairly 
at the bedside before even the parrot awoke. “ Who are you ? 
who are you?” screamed the bird, but before the affrighted 
Herr Wouter could ask the same question, or even grasp the 
carbine that always hung at his bedhead, the hammer fell, as 
did Herr Wouter, crying “ Murder, murder.” It is unlikely 
that the grey parrot had ever heard that terrible word before, 
much less practised it ; it was uttered, however, in a tone so 
shrill, so agonized, that the bird caught it up instantly, and 
cried murder tod. 
“ Twist that villain’s neck,” said Schnop to his wife, “ while 
I carry the money into the cellar ; he will bring the whole town 
about our ears else.” 
So while Carl was gone down-stairs, madame opened the 
cage-door, and endeavoured to seize the parrot. He, however, 
snapped at her hand, fierce as a mastiff, and so tore it that it 
was speedily as red as the miser’s pillow. 
When Carl came up-stairs again, he found his wife still 
tussling with the parrot, so said he, “ Cet out of the way, 
