Spoiled by Eight Uncles

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…”

time. They were taken aback by the duo’s peculiar behavior, and upon further clarification, they discovered that Lilly had returned to the Hatcher mansion in search of the parrot. The ordinary bird with green feathers watched on as the Crawfords

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

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

started singing, “Gilby

“Why don’t you do

and raised one arm. “Squawk! Squawk! Squawk!” The man patted his raised

thought, Uncle

a mocking smile, Jonas crossed his arms and

Dumb Dumb!” Polly

response, Edward pointed at the parrot

me!” Polly flapped its wings

Edward’s incredulous expression; he was horrified by the animal’s

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

averted her gaze and pretended everything was all right. The man smirked when he saw

you know that?” Edward

out laughing and replied, “Are you

throw a tantrum, Bryson called out, “Jonas

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

with her cuteness. Even Edward’s heart was softened; she reminded him of his sister, Jean, when