An Advice From The Birds
In a certain town lived a rich landlord. He had a daughter for his only child. The girl was beautiful. Besides, being the only heir to her father's vast estates, she deserved the hand of a prince in marriage. That is what she thought, her father thought, and all those who knew them thought. But not their page whom the landlord had bought from the slave market a year or two ago. The audacious lad thought that he deserved to marry his master's daughter. Not that the page revealed his ambition to anybody. He was too clever to do that. All he did was steal a bottle of wine and a gold ring from the neighboring households in the course of a whole year. Certainly, he could not have won his master's daughter's hand through a gift of these two stolen articles! No, his was a highly original scheme.
It was a summer evening. The sun had set and the breeze had just begun cooling down. The landlord, his wife, and their daughter were enjoying a stroll in their garden. The page followed them, as was the practice to run errands should it be necessary. While the landlord and his wife exchanged their views on a variety of matters and their daughter pranced about, clapping her hands at the squirrels and giggling, the page remained behind and was heard muttering to himself from time to time. He did so looking at the birds. His master observed him doing so. At first, he ignored the boy's conduct. But soon he grew a bit curious and asked him what he was doing. The page kept quiet. "You behave as if you can understand what the birds are saying!" said the landlord jokingly. His wife and daughter laughed. The page pretended to blush; as if a secret of his had been out! His behavior intrigued his master. "Tell me what you were muttering!" he demanded. "My master, it is true that I can understand the language of the birds!" said the page. The landlord did not know whether to laugh at the boy or slap him. Just then a crow perched on a branch not far above them, cawed. "What does the crow say?" asked the landlord. "It says that a bottle of wine remains buried under this tree," replied the page. "Really?" observed his master and he picked up a shovel and began digging around the tree. He did so more to call the page's bluff and punish him than to hit upon a bottle of wine.
But, lo and behold, a bottle of wine was what he found! He stood speechless. His wife and daughter looked at the page with awe. A bird chirped as it flew overhead. The page looked up and nodded. "Did this bird also say something meaningful?" asked the landlord's wife. "It said that there is a gold ring lying in the nest which a bird has built on the tree yonder," replied the page. The landlord had no patience to summon a servant. He climbed the tree and traced the nest. In the nest lay a gold ring! Coming down, the landlord embraced his page and said, "I doubt if there is another lad as much gifted as you are in the whole land!" "There isn't, I'm sure," agreed his wife. A couple of birds whistled from a bush. "Shut up!" exclaimed the page. "What did they say?" asked the landlord. "Pardon me, master, I cannot reveal that to you," was the boy's answer. He looked terribly embarrassed. "Come, come, you must tell us about it," said the master in great eagerness. "Yes, be a good boy and speak it out," implored the master's wife.
"I would rather die than say it, for if I say it, I would die in your hands," said the page, pretending to be in a state of panic. "No harm will be done to you, I assure you," asserted the landlord. "Yes, yes, I stand guarantee for it," said the landlord's sweet daughter. "Well then, if hear you must..." the page hemmed and hawed for a moment and then blurted out, "the birds say that a great misfortune is about to befall your family. The only way out is to marry your daughter to me!" There was an ominous silence. Slowly the landlord said, "Well, you are not unworthy of my daughter's hand but for your lowly birth. But once you marry my daughter, you will be recognized as my son-in-law and heir. Nobody would care to know from where you came!" "The birds know better than we poor human beings. Since they say that the marriage would do good, we ought not to delay the matter," remarked the landlord's wife. Indeed, the event was not delayed.
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