He made a dash out of the room, and the boys screamed so that Mr. Morris
came down from his study to see what the noise meant. As soon as the
parrot saw him, she would not utter another word. The boys told him
though what she had been saying, and he seemed much amused to think that
the cabin boy should have remembered so many sayings his boys made use
of, and taught them to the parrot. "Clever Polly," he said, kindly;
"good Polly."
The cabin boy looked at him shyly, and Jack, who was a very sharp boy,
said quickly, "Is not that what you call her, Henry?"
"No," said the boy; "I call her Bell, short for Bellzebub."
"I beg your pardon," said Jack, very politely.
"Bell--short for Bellzebub," repeated the boy. "Ye see, I thought ye'd
like a name from the Bible, bein' a minister's sons. I hadn't my Bible
with me on this cruise, savin' yer presence, an' I couldn't think of any
girls' names out of it, but Eve or Queen of Sheba, an' they didn't seem
very fit, so I asked one of me mates, an' he says, for his part he
guessed Bellzebub was as pretty a girl's name as any, so I guv her that.
'Twould 'a been better to let you name her, but ye see 'twouldn't 'a
been handy not to call her somethin', where I was teachin' her every
day.
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