"That's true;" said Raymond, "but I will do my best to read, if you will do your best to write."
"Did not our mother tell you to ask me this?" said Louis, turning towards his brother with a smile.
"She did," answered Raymond.
"I thought it sounded like her," said Louis. "She greatly wants me to read and write; and, for her sake, and yours, too, Raymond, I'll try a letter. But is not that Bernard, over in the field?"
"Yes, it is," said Raymond. "He is training a young falcon for me."
"For you!" cried Louis, jumping up. "I did not know that. Let us go down to him."
"I did not know it, either," said his brother, rising, "until yesterday. Bernard is going to teach me to fly the bird as soon as it is trained."
"And I am going away to-morrow," cried Louis. "It is too bad!"
The boys now ran down to the field, where a tall, broad-shouldered man, dressed in a short, coarse jacket of brown cloth, with tight breeches of the same stuff, was walking towards them. He bore on his left hand a large falcon, or goshawk, a bird used in that day for hunting game of various kinds.
"Ho, Bernard!" cried Louis, "how is it I never heard that you were training that bird? I should have liked to watch you all the time."