APPRENTICESHIP


The little stable-boy, Michael Warden, hurried on to his sick father. It
was late, and the journey would take him two hours. On his way he
stopped to buy a few delicacies for his father with the coins the
Duchess had given him. To his surprise, he found on arrival that his
father was very much improved.

Before daybreak on the following morning, Michael hurried to the woods
to find the nightingale's nest he knew so well. When he had last visited
it, he had seen five brownish-green eggs there. But as he now peered
into it he found, to his great astonishment, that the young birds had
broken through their shells. With all haste he set out for the villa,
several miles distant, to study the situation and decide where he could
best fasten the nest. Arriving there, he found a suitable place, and
then hurried back to the woods.

In the course of a few days, he succeeded in caging the parent birds.
Placing the nest beside them in the cage, he carried it to the garden of
the Duchess. He arrived there toward evening, and was hospitably
received by the gardener, who had been fully acquainted with the idea.

Adjoining the villa was a large tract of land, well wooded, which was
beautifully laid out with garden plots, pebbly, shaded paths,
vine-covered bowers and rustic seats. In one corner of the garden there
stood an odd little thatch-covered arbor, nestling between high rocks in
the shadow of the tall trees. A brook which fell in foaming whiteness
flowed past this little nook, clear as crystal, and made the stillness