Mary O’Toole comes home from school one day and tells her mother about getting in trouble for being rude to her teacher. Mary thinks her mother will be impressed with her witty comment, but instead, she is sent to her room. She continues behaving impudently, repeating, “I’ll do it because I want to but not because you tell me to” (39) when her parents ask her to do anything. Mrs. O’Toole calls several women in the neighborhood for advice and is told to call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. She does, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tells Mrs. O’Toole to come by her house after lunch to collect Penelope the parrot, “a cure for even the most stubborn cases of Answer-Backishness” (42). Mrs. O’Toole brings home the parrot, who speaks only to children. When Mary comes home from school, she is delighted with Penelope. The first thing the parrot says to Mary, who is eating a cookie, is, “Gimme a bite, pig!” (43). Worried about Mary’s amusement with Penelope, Mrs. O’Toole calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle reassures her that after enough time, Penelope won’t fail to change Mary’s behavior.

Every time Mary is about to be impudent, Penelope says something rude first.