VIII.
THE WONDERFUL BIRD.
Once upon a time an old man felt himself to be dying, and, calling hisfamily (consisting of three sons, named Obed, Mozam, and Sadoc) to hisbedside, took leave of them one by one, according to the fashion of theeast, and, after recommending to their joint protection an aged uncle,who had long been unable to take care of himself, and bidding them behonest and industrious, he addressed them thus:--“My sons, I leave youin possession of this cottage, its furniture, and a small amount oftreasure in gold, the fruits of many years’ labor, and I wish you toremain here like brothers, and work together in amity till the death ofyour uncle, so that he will not be a burden upon either of you; besidesthis, I am able, by means of the power which has latterly been given me,to foresee future events, and to predict that to one of you will comegood fortune through the means of a wonderful bird, who is to be thecause of this great wealth. To which of you it is to come I cannotdetermine, nor is it of much importance that you should know; it is onlyrequired of you each to do his duty, and leave all the rest toProvidence.” Obed and Mozam were delighted to hear this good news, eachone secretly thinking himself the fortunate one; but poor Sadoc, who wasthe youngest, and the most dutiful of the three, was so grieved at theprospect of parting with his dear father, who had always been so kindand indulgent to him, that he thought little about this prophecy, as hesat by the bedside, and closed the eyes that should never again lookupon him with the light of life and love.
After his father was dead he sat by his corpse till, overcome byweariness (the result of previous long watching), he fell asleep. Hisbrothers had retired to rest early in the evening, and he had supposedthem slumbering for hours before; but about midnight the eldest, Obed,who had not undressed himself, hearing the deep, regular breathing ofSadoc, which assured him that he would not easily awaken, stole softlyinto the room, and, finding the keys, took the box of money from underthe bed, and unlocking it, secreted all the gold that he could find inhis pockets, and, taking a small bundle of clothes in his hand, startedoff as rapidly as possible, leaving the body of his father stillunburied in the house.
The next morning, when it was discovered that Obed had gone, and thatthe strong box had been robbed of all its treasure, the second son,Mozam, was loud in his exclamations against the wickedness andingratitude of his elder brother; but Sadoc felt so disgraced by hisconduct he said hardly a word in his grief, but silently went on withthe preparations for his father’s funeral, and had him interred with allthe appearance of decency and respect possible, in the absence of thefirst-born son, he who should have been the principal mourner, and atnight retired to rest less sad, from feeling the happy consciousness ofhaving done his duty.
And now it was shown that Mozam was in reality no better than hisbrother Obed, for no sooner was Sadoc fast asleep in his own bed thanthe second brother arose and let into the door several men who had beenwaiting outside, and, with their assistance, loaded a cart with all theeffects of the cottage that were movable, and drove off with them to thepawnbrokers, who advanced on them a sum of money, with which he madeoff, as his brother had done before him. When Sadoc arose in the morninghe found every article of furniture missing, with the exception of hisown and his uncle’s bed, and a few old worthless pots and pans; and hisaged relative was seated in the chimney-corner on an old settle, gazingaround with a stare of dismay on the scene of devastation. While Sadocremained shocked, speechless, he heard a sort of chuckling noise, and,looking to see from whence it proceeded, found that an old speckled henhad stolen a nest in some wool that lay under the seat of his uncle, andwas there sitting upon a large number of eggs. Here, thought poorSadoc, is another mouth to feed, and, going into the granary, picked upa few grains of corn and some seeds which he threw to the hen. He thensat down sadly to devise a plan by which he could get bread for himselfand his helpless dependent. Had he been alone there would have been nodifficulty; the wide world would have been before him, and, with hisenergy and perseverance, he could soon have achieved a fortune withoutthe intervention of any wonderful bird, and he must now give up anyhopes he might have had of finding it. He felt that his father’s lastinjunction, to take care of his poor idiot brother, was, now that hiselders had both proved themselves unworthy of their trusts, doublybinding upon him, so he went out and hired himself to the first masterthat he could find, as a common laborer, and toiled hard all day for afew scanty pennies, which bought just bread enough to keep himself andhis uncle from actual starvation, and a few crumbs for his old hen.After going on a week or two in this way, he came home one night andfound the hen had brought out a large brood of chickens. He had now towork harder to procure them a little food also, on which they seemed tothrive; and as spring advanced, and the warm weather came, the old manused to let them out of the coop, and wandered with them about themeadows, where they picked up worms, grasshoppers, and such seeds asthey could find, and they grew through the summer so well, that by thetime of the Christmas market, they were as plump as partridges, and halfof them sold for quite a little sum of money, which he laid by, and soldthe eggs of the remaining ones for enough to pay for their food duringwinter. In the spring, most of them bringing out large broods, he hadquite a lot of chickens for the fall market, and eggs to sell all thesummer, so that he found after several seasons that he had moneyenough--the proceeds of his eggs and chickens--to purchase a little spotof rocky ground close beside his cottage, where he meant his uncleshould amuse himself, in picking up stones, and planting a few turnipsand cabbages. Now we leave him happy and contented, though in povertyso deep, and see what has become of his brothers, who went off to seekthe wonderful bird.
On the night that Obed had stolen away with the gold, when he hadreached an eminence just beyond, he looked back on the little cottage,where his father’s body lay, and where his brothers were so peacefullysleeping, and his conscience smote him for a moment, for the wrong whichhe was doing them; but quickly stifling the voice within, he said tohimself, “It is now too late to return and replace the money; I shouldprobably be discovered, while doing it, and then the disgrace would bethe same; besides I shall, no doubt, be soon able to give them back tentimes the value of that I have taken with me; for when I obtain thiswonderful bird, which is to make the fortune of one of us, and as I amthe oldest, I feel certain that it is my own, I shall come back again,and enrich them all. I should really do them a greater injustice if Istaid at home till this money should be spent, and deprived myself ofthe means of finding it, than by going now, and making a certainty ofsecuring it.” And thus having succeeded in quieting all scruples, hewent on as fast as he was able, till after several days, having gone along distance, he began to proceed on his course more leisurely, withoutfear of pursuit. And now his mind began to be more and more upon thewonderful bird, and he listened to all the tales of travelers of thebirds of Paradise, and of the desert bird, of the owls that hooteddismally through the woods, and the nightingales that cheered thedarkness with their melody. Great flocks of birds passed over his head,eastward, and westward, and southward; some of the most beautifulplumage, but none ever stopped in their flight to point him to thetreasure that he longed for, but they soared away out of his sight. Atlast, after a long time, he heard of a bird, which had been known to domany wonderful things. It was said to have it in its power to foretellfuture events; had pointed out to many persons the places where theyfound lost money and goods, and was in all respects a most remarkablefowl. “Now,” thought Obed, when stories of its superior powers wererecounted to him, “I am coming at last to the object of my desires; thisis the bird by whose means I am to realize the great prediction made bymy father, and now I can congratulate myself upon the wisdom of thecourse which I have pursued, in putting myself in a way to find thismarvelous creature. I might have staid at home all my lifetime, and havebeen no richer, though all this fortune (the secret of which this birdno doubt possesses,) stands waiting for me.” So losing not a singlemoment, he set off to the place where it was being exhibited. H
e reachedan inn at the town that same night, and made so many inquiriesconcerning it, as to awaken the attention of all present. Among therest, stopping at the tavern were two men, who seemed disposed to bevery sociable with him. They treated him to drink, and professed to feela great and sudden friendship for him; they threw him completely off hisguard, and before he retired to bed he had told them all about theprophecy of his father, and was silly enough to reveal to them that hecarried a bag of money with him. After he left the room, they satwhispering together, and laughing about him, and then calling him agreat fool, as he was to be sure, they followed him to bed likewise. Nowthese two very men belonged to the company that were exhibiting thebird, and were stationed at the inn on purpose to gain all theinformation that they could about the people in the town, so that theycould by means of the bird, convey to them such a knowledge of their ownprivate affairs, as to surprise the credulous at once into a belief ofits supernatural powers. They had got all the information they wantedconcerning Obed, and early in the morning left the inn, to get theconjurer who managed the bird, in readiness to receive him, while he laydreaming of being in a world where every thing was turned into gold.
As soon as the hour appointed for the performance of its magical trickshad come, Obed presented himself before the bird. It was a macaw, withbrilliant plumage; under its feet was a plate, marked like the dial of aclock; it would walk three times around this, and presently, with oneof its toes, point to a particular mark, which the exhibiter pretendedto interpret and explain. When Obed stood before it, it began to flutterits wings, and showed great signs of agitation, which was said to bebecause it was going to predict some great fortune to him. This at theoffset so prejudiced Obed in its favor, that he was prepared to believeevery word that followed. The bird then walked round the dial threetimes and pointed to a mark; the exhibiter commenced explaining it. Atfirst, he repeated as much of Obed’s plans and history as the two menhad picked up the night before, which gave him, in the course of fifteenminutes, such confidence in its ability, that had the bird told him togo to the bottom of the sea in search of the treasure, he would havebeen almost stupid enough to have done it; but they told him no suchthing, for they were not at all desirous of putting him out of the waytill they had got possession of his bag of money.
They told him to wait till night came, and then to go alone to a cave,which they pointed out to him, about half a mile distant from the town,through the woods, where he would find an old hermit, who would meethim, and show him where he could find an immense, treasure. They thendismissed him.
Obed was so impatient to come into possession of his wealth, he scarcelyate or drank all day, and as soon as it was dark, set off in search ofthe cave. After groping about for a long while, and falling down severaltimes, he came at last upon it, and was rather surprised at not findingthe hermit in waiting for him; but seeing a torch approach, concludedthat it must be he; but was soon much surprised at seeing instead threemen, two of whom he recognized as the same who had been the night beforeat the tavern. They came upon him, and suddenly seizing him, gave him amost unmerciful beating. They then bound him hand and foot, and tookfrom him his money; and after making themselves merry for a while at hisexpense, left him lying upon the ground half dead, telling him that nodoubt the hermit would come and show him the treasure before morning.There he lay all night, moaning and crying, and then came to his mindthoughts of his own undutiful conduct, in leaving his brothersunprovided for, and he felt that he was only justly punished for all hiswickedness. He was not only half frozen with the cold, but was in afright lest some beast of prey should come upon him in this helplessstate, all bound as he was, and mangle or devour him; but he wasrelieved from the worst of his fears in the morning; for a company ofsailors passing that way going to their vessel, found him in thispitiable condition; they helped him up on one of their mules, andbearing him to the inn, from whence he had come, made inquiries,concerning the two men, and the owners of the bird, but found they hadgone off early the evening preceding; and though great exertions weremade by the people of the town, almost all of whom had been in some wayor other deceived by them, no traces of them could be found.
Now poor Obed knew not what course to pursue; he had no money, to returnto his native home; and even if he had, shame would have prevented hisdoing so; he therefore accepted the offer of the sailors, that heshould join them, and go on board the ship; and while he is passing alife of toil and hardship upon the perilous ocean, let us go back andtrace out the history of his second brother, Mozam.
As soon as he left his home, he went directly to a neighboring seaport,and embarked in a vessel that was going to the coast of Africa, as ifthinking that the farther he got from his home, the greater would be thechances of his finding the bird of promise. After reaching the land, heroamed about from place to place, till nearly all his money had gone,and yet no richer or wiser. Multitudes of birds of every shape and hue,daily passed before his eyes. At last he fell in with a company who werecrossing the desert in a caravan, and many strange sights were seen byMozam. Nothing awakened his wonder so much as the gigantic ostrichesthat ran much swifter than horses over the sands. “Surely,” thought he,“what creature is more capable of revealing any knowledge or mystery toman than this--what bird could be one-half so wonderful; this must bethe creature that is to exercise such an influence over my fortunes.”But yet nothing occurred, day after day, to confirm his hopes of theirbeing able to assist him, though hundreds of them passed daily beforehim.
But one day, one of these creatures who seemed very tame, came near thecaravan, and allowed itself to be fed, caressed, and petted by thecompany, which excited much wonder; but above all, they were surprisedat finding a string hung with bits of gold and shells about its neck,and no one could explain this strange problem. But Mozam, although hekept his convictions secret, was satisfied in his mind as to the meaningof it. So in the morning before any else were stirring, he stole off tothe inclosure where the animal had been confined, and mounting upon itsback, he let it go free. It flew off with such speed that he could atfirst hardly contrive to hold himself on; but by degrees he becameaccustomed to its motion, and maintained his seat. To say that he feltno fear, while this immense creature was sweeping along with him overthe trackless wastes, would be untrue; but he felt quite sure that itwas sent as the harbinger of his good fortune, and that the gold aroundits neck was a sure indication of its being able to conduct him to amine of that precious metal. So, blinded by ambition to the danger ofhis situation, he continued on till the ostrich ran with him into a campof Bedouins, from whom the bird had wandered; a set of wild people, thevery last whom Mozam would have desired to have encountered; and fromwhose mercy he had so little to hope. He looked every moment for them tostrike him dead, but instead of this, they only amused themselves intormenting him to see him writhe, which was almost worse than death. Asthese people subsisted upon raw flesh and roots, he was almost starved,and as they were constantly fighting with other barbarous tribes, hislife was all the time in danger. Here was a fine end to all hisambitious schemes, and he had plenty of leisure and cause to repent hisearly misconduct. He had brought ruin upon his own head. So miserablewas he among these barbarians, he was several times on the point ofmaking way with himself. He continued in this miserable state ofexistence, till at last, tired of carrying him about with them, thesepeople sold him as a slave to the Barbary States; and here let himremain, while we continue the history of Sadoc.
It will be remembered that with the money that he had saved he purchaseda small lot. On digging, it was found to contain a quarry of valuablestone, which he immediately set about getting out in order for sale, andit yielded such a quantity, and sold at so high a rate, that he soonbegan to be a capitalist, and able to enter into speculations, which,proving successful, he soon found himself above want, and in time becamethe largest landed proprietor in the country. He now built a finemansion where his father’s old cottage, which was pulled down, hadstood, and married a lady as wise and
prudent as himself, and with asnoble a family of children around him as one could desire, he enjoyed asgreat an amount of happiness as generally falls to the lot of man. Thefame of his benevolence spread abroad, and he was more respected forhis integrity than any other person in the country. Notwithstanding allthe honors that were showered upon him, he never forgot his duty to hispoor old uncle, who used to sit, as he had ever done, in the warmchimney-corner, the long winter days and nights, and doze away his lifewith the old speckled hen, who was aged like himself, in her nest besidehim.
During all this long time he had heard nothing from his brothers, andoften wondered what had become of them, and which of them had found thebird, according to his father’s prediction.
One evening about this time, at the entrance of the town where Sadocresided, a poor sailor was seen coming wearily along. He sat himselfupon a stone, and seemed overcome with his emotions. The tears stoledown his cheeks, and he looked as if he could not advance a stepfurther. While he sat there, another traveler, in very nearly the sameplight as himself, came up with him. The last comer was a tall, darkman, who seemed to have been bronzed by exposure to the sun. Seeingeach other in a like sad condition, they entered into conversation; thenat last it came out they were the brothers, Obed and Mozam, one of whom,worn out with voyaging, had left his vocation of mariner to find anasylum in the poor-house of his native town; the other, who had escapedfrom slavery, and toiled his way along on foot for miles and miles, wascoming for the same purpose. They rushed into each other’s arms, andshed tears of pity at the sorrowful case in which each found the other,and then, feeling not quite so lonely, they went on together into thetown. They bent their course toward the spot their boyhood had known sowell, where the old cottage had stood. In its place was a splendidmansion, at which they gazed for a few moments, and were about to turnaway, when a friendly voice hailed them, and arrested their retreatingfootsteps; and when they said that they were travellers, without food orplace of shelter, they were led into an apartment where a warm fire wasblazing, and were requested to seat themselves while a servant shouldprocure them some food. Obed started back in amazement as he caughtsight of a figure seated in the chimney-corner, and exclaimed, “My poorold uncle, yet alive and here.” Mozam knew him at the same time, and,turning round as the master of the house entered, recognised in himSadoc, their brother (for he had not changed half as much asthemselves), and whispered his discovery to Obed. They consulted apart,and feared to reveal themselves lest he should spurn them on account oftheir poverty, their former misconduct, and his present grandeur; butere long their feelings overpowered them; they fell down at his feet,and asked his forgiveness and his pity.
Sadoc, though at first he could hardly believe that this poor wornsailor was his brother Obed, and still less that the dark and haggardman was the once handsome Mozam, yet he was convinced of the truth. Hepardoned them freely, and wept tears over their misfortunes, andpromised them they should never want a home while he was able to givethem one. All night long Obed and Mozam sat by the fireside recountingtheir adventures to their brother, and at last, when they had told all,Sadoc spake, and said, “How strange that the prophecy of our fathershould not yet have been fulfilled; the wonderful bird has not beenfound.” At this the old uncle, who had all the while been dozing in thecorner, suddenly roused up, and said, pointing to the old hen besidehim, “This is the wonderful bird, and the founder of your good fortune,”and directly relapsed into his stupor. The truth then flashed upon themind of Sadoc, and when he related to his brother the history of thehen, it was as clear to their minds as to his own, that it was to herthat his father’s prediction related, and that this was the bird thatwas to bring such riches to the family. They saw that honesty, and acareful attention to duty, was more likely to bring a man to prosperityat last, than roguery and selfishness. But, as they had paid so dearlyfor their early misdemeanors, they were permitted to enjoy rest in thehouse of Sadoc, where they recovered in some degree from the effect oftheir hardships and sufferings, and were contented and happy. As for theold uncle, he died shortly after this; and the old speckled hen aboutthe same time departed this life; but Sadoc never forgot his gratitudefor her services, though he lived to a great age.