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14 the crow and the parrot A PARROT, MUCH PRIZED by his mistress, struck up a friendship with a crow. One day the parrot's mistress came to the window to see how her pet was getting along, and the crow hid behind some vines. "Does my pretty polly like the nice sun?" she asked in a mincing voice. [ 26 ] "Does my pretty polly like the nice sun?" echoed the parrot in the same tone his mistress had used. The woman pursed her lips and made a kissing noise. Instantly the parrot duplicated the sound so perfectly that it would have been impossible to tell which had been made by the mistress and which by her pet. The woman laughed with pleasure, and said, "Oh, you are so clever, my dear! You are so clever!" The parrot's mood changed with her own. He, too, laughed and said, "Oh, you are so clever, my dear! You are so clever!" When the mistress had gone, the crow said, "You have no opinions of your own, my friend. An you do is duplicate what your mistress says." The parrot said, "That's correct; I can't deny it." "It seems to me she'd be so sick of hearing her 'words echoed that she'd long since have pulled out your feathers in boredom or wrung your neck in a rage," said the crow. The parrot said, "No bird that lives gets the love and honor that I get. Can you name another creature who's reached the age of sixty without hearing a single cross word?" [ 27 ] ...

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