After coming to the house by way of a garden full of parrots, Father Latour was amused to find that the sole ornament in the padre’s poor, bare little sala was a wooden parrot, perched in a hoop and hung from one of the roof logs. While Father Jesus was instructing his Indian girl in the kitchen, the Bishop took this carving down from its perch to examine it. It was cut from a single stick of wood, exactly the size of a living bird, body and tail rigid and straight, the head a little turned. The wings and tail and neck feathers were just indicated by the tool, and thinly painted. He was
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