CHAPTER VI
TRAINING
As a first step he had secured a wicker basket with a close-fitting cover
which roused the liveliest curiosity and caused Andrea to ask, doubtfully:
"What has a basket to do with teaching a pigeon?"
"Just about everything," the old man wisely replied. "By carrying the bird
in a dark basket to the place from which he is to make his flight, he will
have no way of acquainting himself with the direction in which he traveled,
and, when released, must depend entirely upon his homing instinct."
"Chico won't like being shut up in a dark prison," interrupted Maria,
stretching up to caress the glossy neck; "it's like being blindfolded."
"Perhaps not," was the rejoinder, "but if he is going to be trained to be a
faithful homer, he will have to spend a good deal of time in the same dark
prison. It's part of the discipline of his life." As he finished, he began
tracing figures on the pavement, and the children, wondering still more,
watched him, fascinated.
"There's no doubt," he mused, more to himself than to his listeners, "but
that he could find his way from such near-by points as the Ducal Palace and
the Bridge of Sighs--I'm disposed to take him farther away for his first
trial--say to the Rialto."
"Bene! bene!" [Footnote: Good! good!] shouted Andrea, clapping his hands.
"Then," continued the old man, without paying any attention to the
interruption, "if he does well from such distances as that, we'll gradually
take him farther away--perhaps to the Lido and--"
"To the Lido," repeated Andrea, to whom this seemed a great distance.
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