Eight Uncles' Beloved Treasure (Lily)

Chapter 9 Stubborn

Gilbert continued to accompany Lilly in her efforts to persuade the parrot after chasing Debbie away. He was irritated at the prospect of having to sweet-talk an animal into following them home rather than trapping it.

“Come on, Polly. I’ll feed you delicious meat if you come down,” the man coaxed.

The parrot stared at Gilbert and shook its head. “No meat. No meat! No fat!”

When he saw the animal was refusing to cooperate, he took a deep breath and resorted to his last resort, “Lilly, let’s go. Ignore the parrot.”

Tears welled up in Lilly’s eyes as she clutched Gilbert’s shirt and begged, “Please, Uncle Gilbert. Don’t abandon Polly.”

It broke his heart to watch Lilly in such distress. Hence, he apologized, “I’m sorry, Lilly. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have said that.” He wanted to slap himself hard when he realized that he had forgotten the little girl was overly protective of her friends.

Lilly was surprised because that was the first time anyone had apologized to her. She smiled and patted Gilbert on the shoulder. “It’s all right, Uncle Gilbert.”

Even though she had expressed her regrets in the past, no one had assured her that everything was fine. The little girl promptly comforted her uncle, knowing that the apologizer would feel horrible if she did not respond.

They then turned their focus to the parrot.

“Polly, be good now. Uncle Gilbert didn’t mean to trick you. He isn’t a bad person,” Lilly assured.

“I’m sorry, Polly. Please come down. We are going to Clodston and the garden there was huge. We can even find you a female friend…”

behavior, and upon further clarification, they discovered that Lilly had returned to the Hatcher mansion in search

me, Gilbert? What’s so difficult about persuading a parrot? Why are

that fooling the parrot would be difficult; Gilbert had spent a lot of effort on this with no

singing, “Gilby

scowled and retorted, “Why don’t you do

Squawk!” The man patted his raised arm to signal the parrot to land

eyes and thought, Uncle Edward looks

and uttered, “It’s just a parrot. Why

Dumb

Edward pointed at the parrot and screamed, “Damn it! Get down here right

Polly

giggled as she observed Edward’s incredulous expression;

and Uncle Bryson are nice and gentle. Uncle Jonas looks obedient but deep down he’s mean. Uncle Edward looks like a fiery

saw how timid the little girl was.

how would you know

and replied,

Edward was about to throw a tantrum, Bryson called out, “Jonas is right.

leaving the girl with her toy rabbit. She turned to face the parrot and urged, “Polly, hurry. We’re getting ready to

Edward’s heart was softened; she reminded him of his sister, Jean, when she

its head toward Lilly. It then flapped its wings toward the girl, but as it was ready to land on her shoulder,