NCERT Book Class 8 English (It So Happened) Chapter 5 Princess September

5 Princess September
I
• Princess September, like each one of her numerous sisters,
receives the gift of a parrot in a golden cage on her father’s
birthday.
• The parrot dies, and by chance a singing bird comes in its place.
• The princess shows off her pet to the sisters who advise her to
put it in a cage.

THE King and Queen of Siam had many daughters, and the Queen
said that it confused her to have to remember so many names. One
day the King decided to call them January, February, March (though
of course in Siamese) till he came to the youngest whom he
called September.
The King of Siam had a peculiar habit. Instead of receiving
gifts on his birthday he gave them. One year on his birthday, not
having anything else handy, he gave each of his daughters a
green parrot in a golden cage. The princesses were very proud of
their parrots and they spent an hour every day in teaching them
to talk. Presently all the parrots could say ‘God save the king’
and some of them could say ‘Pretty Polly’ in no less than seven
Oriental languages.

Siam: now Thailand handy: immediately available Oriental: of the east (the Orient
means countries of the Far East. Its opposite is the Occident.);