THE RAINBOW PIRATE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 50, 27 August 1938, Page 20

THE RAINBOW PIRATE

rPHE panting bird reached the shore and perched in a rocky cleft. Free! Free! Free of the ship, the boisterous men, and the hated cage. How he had longed for free flight, for sweet air, for the hot sun and the green forest. The ship, the men, the encircling, terrifying water, and the cage, and never a chance to escape! ■- v . Here-at last he rested on firm land. How he had reached it he scarcely knew. Just one thought dominated him: to turn his back'Ort that resless water, to find sanctuary amid his beloved trees. Rested a little, he left the granite shore, almost as fearsome as the white-capped sea. It seemed to have nofood for him, no shade; it was another unknown world. On, on, his wings flagging with weariness and hunger.' As night fell he came to a patch'of woodland and joyfully came to rest. .Moriiing broke, and as the first rays of the rising sun gilded the treetops he astir. Back and forth he quested in search of the food he so much The whole quiet woodland seemed his own, But not for long.. Sleepy twitterings were soon succeeded by throaty croaks, which grew Into suddeft. clamour as a black cloud of rooks rose from the trees, wheeling and calling in joyous abandon. , • The stranger was startled by the noise, and flew hurriedly from his retreat down jtKe sun-flecked glade. The rooks, surprised in their turn by the sudden fla^hv of brilliant rose and emerald wings, fell into momentary silence. Then, with shrieks and angry caws, the whole flock took up the chase of! ttie; alie^n. He was in such deadly fear of the black army behind him that he netfer noticed his direction. When the rooks overtook Him at last, and fell upon him with beak and claw, he collapsed once more among the inhospitable rocks, a pathetic little bundle of crumpled green plumage. •:;:\--'\With;;thjg>;reyer&ng came Richard and Dorothy Pentreata in search of driftwood; ,-The b^y was nearly at the water's edge when he. heard his sister's excited Vbijce,. "Quick!" she cried. "Come down-long at once; here's something!" ■ "Why," - Richard: said, "it's a parrot! And what a state he's in!" They took ;hiitri!hoine carefully in the wood-basket, and the -whole family mourned hisvj?ad plight. Warm food was given to him, care and affection were lavished on Kim,'and he recovered with amazing speed. With his. new feathers - dame b'ack^his brave, saucy spirit. He began to talk—mostly, alas, mysterious Spanish words! No one entered the house without his instant greeting: "AmigbDAmigo!" He whistled and laughed, and learned by degrees a good deal of English, and was finally given the run of the house and garden. He had only one use for this big green cage—he solemnly roosted every night on the top of it! From the garden to the street was a short step; from the street to the market square was a longer one. The handsome bird with the strange history became as well known in Helston as the Town Hall itself. For that ancient building, indeed, he had a great affection, and was to be seen in one of its sheltered crannies every sunny day. * , ..' But this was some years ago. The untidy nests in the Town Hall's dusty carvings are deserted now. Their pretty occupants have gone, and so has the turbulent invader. But for many months he was one of the sights of the picturesque old town.