Hours they practised until far in the night, and when Malcolm felt he
really had located a bird, gained its attention, and set it singing
against him, he was wild, and nothing would satisfy him but that his
father should go to the swamp with him, and well hidden, hear and see that
he called the bird. Gladly Mr. Minturn assented. Whether the boy succeeded
in this was a matter of great importance to his father, but it was not
paramount. The thing that concerned him most was that Malcolm's interest
in what he was doing, his joy in the study he was making, had bred a deep
regard in his heart for his instructor. The boy loved the man intensely in
a few days, and immediately began studying with him, watching him, copying
him. He moved with swift alertness, spoke with care to select the best
word, and was fast becoming punctiliously polite.
On their return Mr. Dovesky had fallen into the habit of lunching with the
Minturns. The things of which he and the boy reminded each other, the
notes they reproduced by whistling, calling, or a combination, the
execution of these on the violin, the references Mr.
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