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The parrot, but guide de mopeso
one. Everybody in fcamp knew mother PETA's

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story. She had certainly been unfortunate
with her husband, for in his lifetime

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he used to beat her just as
wheat is threshed in the barn. He

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was a master of a fishing bark
and had married her formerly because she was

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pretty. Although poor Peta was a
good sailor but brutal. He used to

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frequent Father Oba's inn, where he
would usually drink four or five glasses of

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brandy on lucky days, ate or
ten glasses, and even more according to

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his mood. The brandy was served
to the customers by Father Obain's daughter,

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a pleasing brunette who attracted people to
the house only by her pretty face.

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For nothing had ever been gossiped about
her. Petain, when he entered the

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inn, would be satisfied to look
at her and to compliment her politely and

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respectfully. After he had had his
first glass of brandy, he would already

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find her much nicer. At the
second he would wink. At the third

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he would say, if you were
only Mademoiselle desiree, without ever finishing his

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sentence. At the fourth he would
try to hold her back by her skirt

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in order to kiss her. And
when he went as high as ten,

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it was father Obin who brought him
the remaining drinks. The old innkeeper,

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who knew all the tricks of the
trade, made Desiree walk about between the

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tables in order to increase the consumption
of drinks, and Desiree, who was

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a worthy daughter of father Obain,
flitted around among the benches and joked with

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them, her lips smiling and her
eyes sparkling. Petaget so well accustomed to

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Desiree's face that he thought of it
even while at sea, when throwing out

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his nets in storms or in calms. On moonlight or dark evenings. He

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thought of her while holding the tiller
in the stern of his boat, while

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his four companions were slumbering with their
heads on their arms. He always saw

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her, smiling, pouring out the
yellow brandy with a peculiar shoulder movement,

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and then exclaiming, as she turned
away, there, now are you satisfied.

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He saw her so much in his
mind's eye that he was overcome by

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any irresistible desire to marry her,
and, not being able to hold out

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any longer, he asked for her
hand. He was rich, owned his

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own vessel, his gnats in a
little house at the foot of the hill

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on the retinue, whereas Father Obain
had nothing. The marriage was therefore eagerly

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agreed upon, and the wedding took
place as soon as possible, as both

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parties were desirous for the affair to
be concluded as early as convenient. Three

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days after the wedding, Pattaque could
no longer understand how he had ever imagined

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a desire to be different from other
women. What a fool he had been

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to encumber himself with a penniless creature
who had undoubtedly inveigled him with some drug

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which he had put in his brandy. He would curse all day long,

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break his pipe with his teeth,
and maul his crew. After he had

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sworn by every known term at everything
that came his way, he would rid

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himself of his remaining anger on the
fish and lobsters which he pulled from the

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gnats and threw into the baskets,
oaths and foul language. When he returned

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home, he would find his wife, father Oba's daughter within reach of his

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mouth and hand, and it was
not long before he treated her like the

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lowest creature in the world. As
she listened calmly, accustomed to paternal violence,

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he grew exasperated at her quiet,
and one evening he beat her.

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Then life at his home became unbearable. For ten years, the principal topic

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of conversation on the Retinue was about
the beatings that Patag gave his wife and

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his manner of cursing at her for
the least thing. He could, indeed

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curse with a richness of vocabulary and
a roundness of tone unequaled by other men

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in facamp. As soon as his
ship was sighted at the entrance of the

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harbor, returning from the fishing expedition, every one awaited the first volley he

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would hurl from the bridge. As
soon as he perceived his wife's white cap

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standing at the stern, he would
steer, his eye fixed on the boughs

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and on the sail, and,
notwithstanding the difficulty of the narrow passage and

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the height of the turbulent waves,
he would search among the watching women and

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try to recognize his wife, father
Obay's daughter, the Wretch. Then,

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as soon as he saw her,
notwithstanding the noise of the wind and the

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waves, he would let loose upon
her with such power and volubility that everyone

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would laugh, although they pitied her
greatly. When he arrived at the dock,

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he would relieve his mind while unloading
the fish, in such an expressive

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manner that he attracted around him all
the loafers of the neighborhood. The words

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left his mouth, sometimes like shots
from a cannon, short and terrible,

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Sometimes like peals of thunder which roll
and rumble for five minutes, Such a

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hurricane of oaths that he seemed to
have in his lungs, one of the

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storms of the eternal Father. When
he left his ship and found himself face

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to face with her, surrounded by
all the gossips of the neighborhood, he

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would bring up a new cargo of
insults and bring her back to their dwelling.

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She in front, he behind,
she weeping, he yelling at her.

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At last, when alone with her
behind and closed doors, he would

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thrash her on the slightest pretext,
The least thing was sufficient to make him

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raise his hand, And when he
had once begun, he did not stop,

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but he would throw into her face
the true motive for his anger.

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At each blow, he would roar, there you begg her, there you

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wretch, there you pop her.
What a bright thing I did when I

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were inst my mouth with your rascal
of a father's apology for Brandy. The

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poor woman lived in continual fear,
in a ceaseless trembling of body and soul,

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in everlasting expectation of outrageous thrashings.
This lasted ten years. She was

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so timorous that she would grow pale
whenever she spoke to anyone, and she

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thought of nothing but the blows with
which she was threatened. And she became

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thinner, more yellow, and drier
than a smoked fish. Two. One

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night, when her husband was at
sea, she was suddenly awakened by the

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wild roaring of the wind. She
sat up in her bed, trembling,

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but as she heard nothing more,
she lay down again. Almost immediately there

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was a roar in the chimney which
shook the entire house. It seemed to

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cross the heavens like a pack of
furious animals, snorting and roaring. Then

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she arose and rushed to the harbor. Other women were arriving from all sides,

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carrying lanterns. The men were also
gathering, and all were watching the

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foaming crests of the breaking wave.
The storm lasted fifteen hours. Eleven sailors

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never returned. Patin was among them. In the neighborhood of Dieppe, the

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wreck of his bark, the Jean
Amelie, was found. The bodies of

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his sailors were found near Saint Valerie, but his body was never recovered,

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as his vessel seemed to have been
cut in two. His wife expected and

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feared his return for a long time, for if there had been a collision,

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he alone might have been picked up
and carried afar off. Little by

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little she grew accustomed to the thought
that she was rid of him, although

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she would start every time that a
neighbor, a beggar, or a peddler

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would enter. Suddenly, one afternoon, about four years after the disappearance of

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her husband, while she was walking
along the Rule Juif, she stopped before

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the house of an old sea captain
who had recently died and whose furniture was

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for sale. Just at that moment, a parrot was at auction. He

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had green feathers and a blue head, and was watching everybody with a displeased

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look. Three francs cried the auctioneer. A bird that can talk like a

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lawyer three francs. A friend of
the Peta woman nudged her and said,

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you ought to buy that, you
who are rich, It would be good

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company for you. That bird is
worth more than thirty francs. Anyhow,

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you can always sell it for twenty
or twenty five. PETA's widow added fifty

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santine, and the bird was given
her in a little cage, which she

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carried away. She took it home, and as she was opening the wire

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door in order to give it something
to drink, he bit her finger and

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drew blood. Oh naughty he is, she said. Nevertheless, she gave

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it some hemp seed and corn and
watched it pruning its feathers as it glanced

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warily at its new home and its
new mistress. On the following morning,

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just as day was breaking, the
Pataw woman distinctly heard a loud, deep,

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roaring voice calling, are you going
to get up? Carrion? Her

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fear was so great that she hid
her head under the sheets, for when

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Patao was with her, as soon
as he would open his eyes, he

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would shout those well known words into
her ears. Trembling rolled into a ball,

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her back prepared for the thrashing which
she already expected. Her face buried

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in the pillows, she murmured,
good Lord, he is here, Good

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Lord, he is here, Good
Lord, he has come back. Minutes

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passed, no noise disturbed the quiet
room. Then, trembling, she stuck

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her head out of the bed,
sure that he was there, watching,

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ready to beat her. Except for
a ray of sun shining through the window,

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she saw nothing, and she said
to herself, must be hidden.

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She waited a long time, and
then, gaining courage, she said to

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herself, I must have dreamed at
seeing there is nobody here. A little

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reassured, she closed her eyes,
when from quite near a furious voice,

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the thunderous voice of the drowned man, could be heard, crying, say,

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when in the name of all that's
holy, are you going to get

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out? You b She jumped out
of bed, moved by obedience, by

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the passive obedience of a woman accustomed
to blows, and who still remembers and

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always will remember, that voice,
she said, here, I am Peta.

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What do you want? But Petad
did not answer. Then, at

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a complete loss, she looked around
her, then in the chimney, and

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under the bed, and finally sank
into a chair, wild with anxiety,

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convinced that Petain's soul alone was there
near her, and that he had returned

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in order to torture her. Suddenly
she remembered the loft in order to reach,

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which one had to take a ladder. Surely he must have hidden there

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in order to surprise her. He
must have been held by se savages on

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some distant shore, unable to escape
until now, and he had returned worse

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than ever. There was no doubting
the quality of that voice. She raised

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her head and asked, are you
up there, Peta. Petan did not

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answer. Then, with a terrible
fear, which made her heart tremble,

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she climbed the ladder, opened the
skylight, looked, saw nothing, entered,

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looked about and found nothing, sitting
on some straw. She began to

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cry. But while she was weeping, overcome by a poignant and supernatural terror,

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she heard Petan talking in the room
below. He seemed less angry,

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and he was saying, nasty weather, fierce wind, nasty weather. I

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haven't eaten, damn it, She
cried through the ceiling. Here I am

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Peta, I am getting your meal
ready. Don't get angry. She ran

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down again. There was no one
in the room. She felt herself growing

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weak, as if death were touching
her, and she tried to run and

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get help from the neighbors. When
a voice near her cried out, I

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haven't had my breakfast bike gah,
and the parrot in his cage watched her

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with his round, knowing wicked eye. She too, looked at him wildly,

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murmuring, ah, so it's you. He shook his head and continued,

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just you wait, I'll teach you
how to loaf. What happened within

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her, she felt she understood that
it was he, the dead man who

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had come back, who had disguised
himself in the feathers of this bird in

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order to continue to torment her,
That he would curse as formerly all day

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long and bite her and swear at
her in order to attract the neighbors and

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make them laugh. Then she rushed
for the cage and seized the bird,

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which scratched and tore her flesh with
its claws and beak, but she held

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it with all her strength between her
hands. She threw it on the ground

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and rolled over it with the frenzy
of one possessed. She crushed it and

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finally made of it nothing but a
little green, flabby lump, which no

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longer moved or spoke. Then she
wrapped it in a cloth, as in

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a shroud, and she went out
in her nightgown barefoot. She crossed the

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dock against which the choppy waves of
the sea were beating, and she shook

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the cloth and let drop this little
dead thing, which looked like so much

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grass. Then she returned, threw
herself on her knees before the empty cage,

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and, overcome by what she had
done, kneeled and prayed for forgiveness,

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as if she had committed some heinous
crime. And of the parrot