The Page who Feigned to Know the Speech of Birds.[FN#207]
A certain man of rank once entered the slave-market and saw a page being cried for sale; so he bought him and carrying him home, said to his wife, "Take good care of him." The lad abode there for a while till, one day, the man said to his wife, "Go forth to-morrow to the garden and take thy solace therein and amuse thyself and enjoy thyself." And she replied, "With love and gladness!" Now when the page heard this, he made ready in secret meat and drink and fruits and desert, and sallied forth with them privily that night to the garden, where he laid the meat under one tree, the wine under another and the fruit and conserves under a third, in the way his mistress must pass. When morning morrowed the husband bade him accompany the la
