The Bishop and The Birds

A Bishop who had for his arms two fieldfares, with the motto, " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" thus explains the matter to an intimate friend:

       Fifty or sixty years ago, a little boy resided at a little village near Dillengen, on the banks of the Danube. His parents were very poor, and almost as soon as the boy could walk, he was sent into the woods to pick up some sticks for fuel. When he grew older, his father taught him to pick the juniper berries, and carry them to a neighboring distiller, who wanted them for making hollands. Day by day the poor boy went to his task, and on his road he passed by the open windows of the village school, where he saw the schoolmaster teaching a number of boys of about the same age as himself. He looked at these boys with feelings of envy, so earnestly did he long to be among them. He was quite aware it was in vain to ask his father to send him to school, for he knew that his parents had no money to pay the schoolmaster ; and he often passed the whole day thinking, whilst he was gathering the juniper berries, what he could possibly do to please the schoolmaster, in the hope of getting some lessons. One day when he was walking sadly along, he saw two of the boys belonging to the school trying to set a bird-trap, and he asked one what it was for. The boy told him that the schoolmaster was very fond of fieldfares, and that they were setting the trap to catch some. This delighted the poor boy, for he recollected that he had often seen a great number of these birds in the juniper-wood, where they came to eat the berries, and he had no doubt but he could catch some.

       The next day the little boy borrowed an old basket of his mother, and when he went to the wood he had the great delight to catch two fieldfares. He put them in the basket, and tying an old handkerchief over it, he took them to the schoolmaster's house. Just as he arrived at the door, he saw the two little boys who had been setting the trap, and with some alarm he asked them if they had caught any birds. They answered in the negative; and the boy, his heart beating with joy, gained admittance into the schoolmaster's presence. In a few words he told how he had seen the boys setting the trap, and how he had caught the birds to bring them as a present to the master.

       "A present, my good boy !" cried the school master; "you do not look as if you could afford to make presents. Tell me your price, and I will pay it to you, and thank you besides."

       "I would rather give them to you, sir, if you please," said the boy.

       The schoolmaster looked at the boy who stood before him, with bare head and feet, and ragged trousers that reached only half-way down his naked legs. "You are a very singular boy!" said he, "but if you will not take money you must tell me what I can do for you, as I cannot accept your present without doing something for it in return. Is there anything I can do for you?"

       "O, yes!" said the boy, trembling with delight, "you can do for me what I should like better than anything else."

       "What is that?" asked the schoolmaster, smiling.

       "Teach me to read," cried the boy, falling on his knees. "O, dear, kind sir, teach me to read!"

       The schoolmaster complied. The boy came to him at his leisure hours, and learned so rapidly that the schoolmaster recommended him to a nobleman residing in the neighborhood. This gentleman, who was as noble in mind as in birth, patronized the poor boy, and sent him to school at Ratisbon, The boy profited by his opportunities; and when he rose, as he soon did, he adopted two fieldfares as his arms.

       "What do you mean?" cried the bishop's friend.

       "I mean," returned the bishop, with a smile, "that the poor boy was myself."