A rich merchant had a son in the name of Bobo, awake with talent and eager to learn. The father entrusted him to a very learned teacher, so that he would teach all languages.
When he had finished his studies, Bobo returned home and one evening he was walking with his father in the garden. On a tree, shouted the sparrows: a twitter to deaf. “These sparrows break my eardrums every night,” said the merchant, covering his ears.
And Bobo: – Do you want me to explain what they are saying?
His father looked at him in amazement. – How do you want to know what the sparrows say? Are you a fortune teller?
– No, but the teacher taught me the language of all animals.
– Oh, I spent my money well! – said the father. – What did that teacher understand? I wanted you to teach the languages that speak men, not those of beasts!
– The languages of the animals are more difficult, and the teacher wanted to start with those.
The dog ran to meet them barking. And Bobo: – Do you want me to explain what he says?
– No! Leave me alone with your beast language! Poor my money!
They walked along the moat and sang frogs.
– Even frogs we lacked to keep me happy … – grumbled his father.
“Father, you want me to explain …” Bobo began. Go to the devil you and who taught you!
And the father, angry at having thrown away the money to educate his son, and with the idea that this wisdom of animal language was a bad art, called two servants and told them what they had to do the next day.
In the morning, Bobo was awakened, one of the servants had him mounted in a carriage and sat down next to him; the other, in the box, whipped the horses and set off at a gallop. Bobo knew nothing of the journey, but saw that the servant beside him had sad and swollen eyes. – Where do we go? – he asked him. – Why are you so sad? – but the servant hesitated.
Then the horses began to neigh, and Bobo understood that they were saying: “Sad trip is ours, let’s bring the master to death.
Or the other answered: – Cruel was the order of his father.
“So you have orders from my father to take me to kill?” – Bobo said to the servants.
The servants winced, “How do you know? they asked.
“The horses told me,” said Bobo. – Then kill me right away. Why make me penate waiting for?
“We have no heart to do it,” said the servants. Let’s think about how to save you.
In that he joined them barking the dog, who had run after the carriage. And Bobo understood that he said: -To save
My owner would give my life!
If my father is cruel, – said Bobo, – there are also faithful creatures; you, my dear servants, and this dog who says he is ready to give his life for me.
Then, – said the servants, – kill the dog, and bring his heart to the master. You, master, flee.
Bobo hugged the servants and the faithful dog and went off to the adventure. In the evening he came to a farmhouse and asked the peasants for shelter. They were seated at dinner, when the dog bark came from the courtyard. Bobo listened to the window, then said, “Do soon, send women and children to bed, and arm yourself to the teeth and be on your guard. At midnight there will be a masquerade of marauders to attack you.
The peasants believed that it gave him the brain.
But how do you know? Who told you?
– I heard from the dog lurking to warn you. Poor beast, If I was not there I would have wasted my breath. If you hear me, you are safe.
The peasants, with their guns, lurked behind a hedge. The wives and children closed at home. At midnight a whistle is heard, then another, another; then a movement of people. A discharge of lead came out of the hedge. The thieves fled; two remained dry in the mud, with knives in their hands.
Great feasts were made in Bobo, and the peasants wanted to stop with them, but he took his leave, and continued his journey.
He walks, in the evening he arrives at another peasant’s house. It is uncertain whether to knock or knock, when he hears a croaking of frogs in the ditch. He is listening; they said: – Come on, pass me the host! To me! To me! If you never throw me host to me, I do not play anymore! You do not take it and it breaks! We have kept it whole for so many years! – He comes up and looks: the frogs played ball with a sacred host. Bobo made the sign of the cross.
Six years now, I’m here in the ditch! – said a frog. Since the peasant’s daughter was tempted by the devil, and instead of making communion hid the host in her pocket, and then returning from the church, he threw her into the ditch.
Bobo knocked at the house. They invited her to dinner. Speaking with the farmer, he learned that he had a daughter, sick for six years, but no doctor knew what illness, and now he was dying.
I challenge! – Bobo said: – It is God who punishes her. Six years ago he threw the sacred host into the ditch. We need to look for this host, and then have it communicated devoutly; then he will recover.
The farmer trasecolò. – But who do you know all these things from?
“From frogs,” said Bobo.
The farmer, though without understanding, rummaged in the ditch, found the host, made his daughter communicate, and she healed. Bobo did not know how to make up for it, but he did not want anything, took leave, and left.
One hot day, he found two men resting in the shade of a chestnut tree. He lay down next to them and asked them to keep them company. They began to talk: – Where are you going, you two?
– In Rome, let’s go. Do not you know that the Pope died and the new Pope is elected?
Meanwhile, a flight of sparrows came to rest on the branches of the chestnut tree. Even these sparrows are going to Rome, “said Bobo.
– And how do you know? – asked those two.
“I understand their language,” said Bobo. He listened, and then: “Do you know what they say?
– Thing?
– They say that one of the three of us will be elected Pope.
At that time, to elect the Pope, a dove was left free to fly in the square of St. Peter full of people. The man on whose head the dove was supposed to be placed was to be elected Pope. The three arrived in the crowded square and hunted among the crowd. The dove flew, flew, and settled on Bobo’s head.
In the midst of songs and shouts of joy he was hoisted on a throne and dressed in precious clothes. He rose to bless, and in the silence he had made in the square he heard a cry. An old man had fallen to the ground as dead. The new Pope came and in the old man recognized his father. The remorse had killed him and he barely had time to ask his son for forgiveness, then to die in his arms.
Bobo forgave him, and he was one of the best popes the Church ever had.
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