"Mercy me!" cried Grandma Bell as she heard the strange voice. "What is that?"  
As if in answer the call came again:
 
"Take me out! Don't leave me here! I want to go! Take me! Oh, my eye, give me some pie!"
 
"It's in the automobile²!" said Daddy Bunker.
 
"But who can it be?" asked his wife.
 
"You must have forgotten and left one of the children under a robe, though goodness knows it's hot enough without any covering to-day," said Grandma Bell. "Are all the children here?"
 
Once more she counted them, naming each one in turn: Russ, Rose, Vi, Laddie, Margy and Mun Bun—six little Bunkers.
 
"All here—every one," said Grandma Bell. "Unless you bought a little baby on the way up."
 
"Oh, I almost had one!" exclaimed Rose. "I laid my doll down in a seat, and when I picked her up she was alive, but it was a lady's baby and——"
 
Once more the voice called from the auto¹:
 
"Take me out! Don't leave me here! Oh my eye, give me some pie!"
 
"There is a child in there!" said Grandma Bell "Who is it?" she asked of Mr. Mead³, who had been taking some of the Bunkers' baggage into the house, and who came out just then.
 
"Who is what?" asked the man who had so kindly⁴ given the children a ride over from the station.
 
"What child is hidden in that auto?" asked Grandma Bell. "It isn't one of the six little Bunkers, for they're all here. But there is some child in that auto."
 
"Why no, there isn't," said Mr. Mead. "There's nobody in my machine but——"
 
"Let me out! Oh, let me out!" cried the voice again.
 
"There!" exclaimed Grandma Bell.
 
A queer look came over Mr. Mead's face. Then he laughed. Once more the voice sounded.
 
"Let me out! Let me out!"
 
"Who is it?" asked Grandma Bell.
 
"Why that's Bill Hixon's parrot!" said the owner of the big auto. "I've got him in a cage in the back of my car. He's doing that yelling. I forgot all about him!"
 
"Are you sure it's a parrot and not a child in there?" asked Grandma Bell.
 
"Oh, sure!" answered Mr. Mead. "There he goes again. Listen!"
 
Again came the cry:
 
"Let me out! Let me out! Take me with you! Oh my eye, give me some pie!"
 
And this time it could be told that the voice was that of a parrot, though, at first, it had sounded like a little child crying.
 
"Now you keep still there, Polly," said Mr. Mead.
 
"Polly wants a cracker⁵! Give Polly a cracker!" shrieked⁶ the parrot.
 
"I'll give you a fire-cracker if you don't keep still," said Mr. Mead with a laugh.
 
"Well, I do declare!" said Grandma Bell. "How did Bill Hixon's parrot get in your auto, Mr. Mead?"
 
"Oh, Bill's sending him over to his mother's to keep for him while he's off in the woods lumbering," said Mr. Mead. "He knew I was coming up this way, Bill Hixon did, so he asked me to bring his parrot along. I put the bird in his cage under the back-seat of the auto, and I forgot all about him, or her, whichever it is. I guess Polly has been asleep all the while until just now."
 
"Oh, let us see the parrot!" begged Rose. "I love to hear them talk," and she tucked her doll under her arm and walked toward the auto.
 
"Be careful, he might bite!" said Mother Bunker.
 
"Oh, he's in a cage—he or she—whichever it is," said Mr. Mead. "Bill said the parrot was a good one, and likes children. I guess it won't hurt any to let the tots see the bird."
 
Mr. Mead opened a sort of little cupboard under the back seat of his auto, and brought out a parrot's cage. In it was a green bird, which, as soon as it came out into the sunlight, began preening⁷ its feathers and moving about, climbing up on the wires, partly by its claw feet and partly by its strong beak⁸.
 
"Polly wants a cracker! A sweet cracker!" squawked the parrot. "Lovely day! How are you? Here, Rover, sic the cats!" and the parrot whistled as well as Russ himself could have done.
 
"Oh, what a nice parrot!"
 
"Could we keep him?"
 
"Doesn't he talk plain?"
 
"Listen to that whistle!"
 
"Oh, isn't she nice!"
 
These were some of the things the six little Bunkers said as they listened to Bill Hixon's parrot, as it moved about in the cage on the back seat of Mr. Mead's auto.
 
"Couldn't we keep it, Mother?" asked Rose. "I'd like it almost as much as my doll!"
 
"Oh, mercy no, child! We couldn't keep Mr. Hixon's parrot!" said Mrs. Bunker.
 
"Have you one, Grandma Bell?" asked Russ.
 
"No, I'm thankful to say I haven't," said Mrs. Bell with a laugh. "I like children, and I love to hear them talk and laugh; but I don't like parrots. I have a dog and a cat; so I think we'll let Mr. Hixon have his own parrot."
 
"I don't care for 'em myself," said Mr. Mead. "Well, I'll be getting along with this one now. I guess I've got out all your baggage."
 
"Yes, and thank you very much," said Mr. Bunker.
 
"Come on! Gid-dap! Go 'long, horses!" cried the parrot. "Give me a cracker! Go long, horses!"
 
"He thinks you're driving horses," said Russ.
 
"I don't know what he thinks," said Mr. Mead. "He talks a lot, that's sure. I won't be lonesome for the rest of the way. I'll let the parrot ride outside with me, I guess. He'll be sort of company for me."
 
"Pretty Poll! Give me a cracker! Let me out and give me a cracker!" cried the green bird.
 
"Here's one!" said Laddie, holding out a bit of cracker which he had left from a package his mother had bought for him on the train.
 
"Look out! He might bite you!" said Laddie's fathe............