It was Saturday morning. The children and animals were waiting ina car with the monks in the park by the swan pond. Reni and Elon brough boiled vegetables from home to feed the birds in aviary.
The weather was nice, sunny. According to agrement two monks came to swan’s pond and took all four of them to the car.
In the garden, on treshold of white church was waiting abbot Joseph. He was a tall ,shouldered man with a long, red beard. He hugged the kids and said :
I ‘ll take you to the aviary, so that you can get a closer lookat the birds that brother Jan saved. There were parrots, peacocks, young eagles and condors, falcon and others whose names the children didn’t know. The rides of birds have the own story of friendship with brother John and calltell it to you. But birds won’t stay here much longer. One will be set free in their hometowns. For others, we will find friendly homes. After John’s death, they can no longer stay here alone. To take one of birds you need to nave special conditions at home, for example a large cage or an aviary. You also need to know how to feed the bird and also talk to the bird, hug it.
Reni was immediately fascinated by a large, very colorful macaw parrot. It looked like falling in love at first sight. The girl and the parrot looked at each other and talked tenderly. But Reni knew that her parents did not have condictns to adopt a parrot.
Elon stood fascinated by the ostrich emu. It was a giant bird with a very wize gaze. His tall legs ended in sharp claws, that’s why the boydid not come closer to the bird. The smaller birds ate out of the childrens and were trusting, because dog and pig r remained outside.
Then abbot Josephled children and animals to a shed with books. He said : Now we will open the chest with brother John’s treasures, which he brought form his travel. There werea lot of things in the huge wooden crate. Uncle Joseph let children carefully remove these things, look at them, admire them. He sat down in chair and asked the monk Eusebius to open the padlock closing the lid of chest.Then he ordered remove the large metal box and pour its contents on the floor.
Everone was delighted to see a large number of stones and its various shapes and colors.
Joseph said : These stones are from all over world. From rivers, mountains, ssteppes, deserts, mines, volcanoes, event meteorities from outside of Earth. Some stones are transluced, some are very light and other are very heavy. And on sill others stones you can see the imprits of plants from time of dinosaurs.
Reni shouted : We were looking here at the book about dinosaurs. Trolly the dog growled : These stones have smels also, I can smel of water, mud, fire.
The abbot continued : Those that smell of fire come from volcanoes. Volcnoes have thrown him out their interiors. Do you know, what volcanoes are ?
Elon said : I know, it’s the fire- breathing mountains and the lava. Lava is very hot, these are a molten stones .
Then Joseph asked : And do you know what meteorities are ? These are stones that fell on our Earth from space, for example from moon. Have you heard on the nights of shooting stars? This is when a lot meteorities fall to Earth. You can see how they fly and look like the sparks.
After examining the stones, the abbot Joseph ordered Eusebius and children put them all back into box
He said ; Now we’re taking a break. I’m going back to the abbey. And you here wait for meal you will get from us, See you.
