"She will be interested in it," replied Uncle Peabody. "The little _grillo_ brought luck once upon a time, if the legend be true, and it may do so again."

"Is this _Festa dei Grilli_, as you call it, an annual festival?"

"Yes; and as firmly established as the Feast of the Dove on Easter eve.

The story goes that an attempt was once made upon the life of Lorenzo de' Medici in his own garden by the familiar means of a goblet of poisoned wine. As the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin handed the goblet to Lorenzo a cricket alighted on the surface of the wine and immediately expired.

Thus, as in modern melodrama, the villain was foiled. Since then, a Florentine would harm a human being as soon as he would a _grillo_. Each year these cages are taken into the homes, and as long as the little crickets can be kept alive good luck attends the household."

"Speaking of conspiracies," remarked Emory, who lost no time in finding an opening, "how advances our present one? I have been thinking of nothing else since our talk about Helen."

Uncle Peabody rose and glanced around the garden from his point of vantage. "Careful!" he said, drawing back. "Helen is coming, and I can only say that we must move very cautiously--even more so than I supposed. I will tell you more later."

"Here we are, Helen," he answered, in response to his niece's call, and both men advanced to meet her.

"Oh, you have found my 'snuggery'!" cried Helen, seeing them emerge from the arbor. "I intended to keep that entirely for myself, but I will be generous and share it with you."

"Mr. Emory has brought you a talisman," said Uncle Peabody, pointing to the wicker cage. "Perhaps you will permit this to appease your displeasure."

Helen examined with interest the cage Emory placed in her hand.

"Why, it is a cricket!" she exclaimed, as she discovered the occupant beneath the green leaves.

The story of the origin of the _festa_ was retold and the _grillo_ placed under her special protection.

"It is an emblem of good luck, Helen," added Emory--"like the swastika, only a great deal less commonplace."

"Thank you, Phil," replied Helen. Then she looked up at him suddenly.

"Why did you bring it to me?" she asked, suspiciously. "Do you think I need it?"

"I think we all need all the good luck we can get," replied Emory, guardedly.

"Tesso is late," remarked Uncle Peabody, opportunely, looking at his watch. "He will be greatly interested in the reports of these American experiments."

Another half-hour pa.s.sed by before the professor from Turin arrived.

Helen strolled about the garden with Emory, pointing out the unusual flowers and shrubs, while Uncle Peabody collected his letters and arranged them in proper sequence. Annetta brought out the tea-table and laid everything in readiness, returning to the house just in time to usher the dignified figure into the hall.

"I hope I have not disarranged your plans," apologized the professor, pleased with the cordiality of his reception. "I had a little experience which delayed me."

"My uncle is so anxious to tell you of some good tidings, professor, that he has almost become impatient," replied Helen, smiling. "You observe that I say 'almost,' do you not?"

"It would never do for him to become impatient, would it?" replied Tesso, turning to his friend--"you the disciple of Cornaro and the example to us all! But I myself am weaker--I admit my impatience."

Uncle Peabody and Emory drew up the chairs, and Tesso seated himself next to Mr. Cartwright with obvious expectancy.

"You recall the results of my own experiments in attempting to show increased muscular and mental endurance as a result of eating in right manner what the appet.i.te selects instead of eating in wrong manner what the doctors advise?" began Uncle Peabody.

"And incidentally demonstrating that the existing standard of minimum nutrition for man was three times too large?" queried Tesso.

"Yes. You all were very generous, but I know you attributed the results in a measure to my own personal peculiarities."

"You are right to a certain extent," admitted Tesso, "yet, so far as the experiment went, it proved that your theory was correct."

"Now I have further evidence to add which is overwhelming," continued Uncle Peabody, triumphantly. "For the last six months experiments have been in progress in America, taking as subjects groups of men in different walks of life--college professors, athletes, and soldiers.

To-day I have received a report of the results. In every instance, on an intake of less than the recognized minimum standard, the subjects improved in physical condition and increased their strength efficiency from twenty-five to one hundred per cent. Think of that, Tesso--from twenty-five to one hundred per cent.!"

"I congratulate you heartily, my dear friend," replied the professor, warmly. "The effects of this will be most far-reaching. I foresaw that you might demonstrate a new minimum, but I had not expected that an increased efficiency would accompany it."

"I wish you would introduce this discovery of yours to the Harvard football team," remarked Emory, feelingly. "Perhaps it would result in a few more victories on the right side."

"It certainly would help matters," a.s.sented Uncle Peabody, with confidence. "All this so-called training is necessary only because of the abuse which the average man's stomach suffers from its owner. My theory is that any man, college athlete or otherwise, can keep in perfect condition all the time, simply by following a few easy rules and by knowing how to take care of himself. It is just as important to be in training for his every-day life as for an athletic contest."

"How did the experiments result with the athletes?" Emory inquired.

"These records are the most interesting of all," replied Uncle Peabody, referring to his letter. "This group included track athletes, football players, the intercollegiate all-around champion, and several others--all at full training. They had already increased their strength and endurance efficiency at least twenty-five per cent during the training period before taking up the new system. In four months, eating whatever they craved, but using only the amount demanded by their appet.i.tes and giving it careful treatment in the mouth, these athletes reduced the amount of their food from one-third to one-half, and increased their strength and endurance records from twenty-five to one hundred per cent."

"You ought to feel pretty well satisfied with that," said Emory.

"I am satisfied," replied Uncle Peabody, "as far as it goes, but I hope for far more important results than these."

"Indeed?" queried Professor Tesso. "I shared the thought expressed by Mr. Emory that your ambition ought now to be satisfied."

Uncle Peabody was silent for a moment. "I wonder if I dare tell you what my whole scheme really is," he said, at length.

"You can't startle me any more than you did with your original proposition three years ago," encouraged the professor, smiling. "At that time I could but consider you a physiological heretic."

"Tesso," said Uncle Peabody, deliberately, "the results of these experiments confirm me absolutely that I am on the right track. These revelations on the subject of nutrition are but the spokes of the great movement I have at heart--or perhaps, more properly speaking, they are the hub into which the spokes are being fitted. What I really hope and expect to do is to put education on a physiological basis, and to demonstrate that it is possible to cultivate progressive efficiency--that a man of sixty ought to be more powerful, physically and intellectually, than a man of forty. I can see no reason, logically, for one to retrograde as rapidly as men do now, but this depends upon his knowing how to run the human engine intelligently and economically and thus keeping it always in repair."

"You astonish me, truly," said Tesso, thoughtfully, "yet I can advance no argument except faulty human experience to refute your theory. In fact, you yourself are a living demonstration of its truth."

"Then there would be no old age?" queried Helen.

"There would be age just the same," replied Uncle Peabody, "but it would be ripe and natural age, with only such infirmities as come from accident; and less of these, since disease would find fewer opportunities to fasten itself upon its victims. If all the world knew what some know the death-rate could be cut in two, the average of human efficiency doubled, and the cost of necessary sustenance halved."

"Mr. Cartwright," said Professor Tesso, impressively, "if you succeed in carrying through this great reform of yours, even in part, you will be the greatest benefactor of mankind the world has known."

"It is too large a contract to be carried through by any single one, but my confidence in the final outcome is based on the intelligent interest which others are taking in my work. I am glad you do not think the idea chimerical. It encourages me to keep at it with tireless application."

"Dare I interrupt with so prosaic a suggestion as a cup of tea?" asked Helen, as there came a lull in the conversation.

"Mr. Cartwright has given me so much to think about that a little relaxation will be grateful," replied the professor. "Perhaps you would be interested if I gave you an account of the experience which delayed me this afternoon?"

"By all means," said Helen, as she prepared the tea. "I am sure it was an interesting one."

"You may not know that I have a great love for the romantic," confessed Professor Tesso. "It seems a far cry from my every-day life, but sometime I mean to prepare an essay upon the subject of the relation between science and romance. In fact, I believe them to be very closely allied."

"What a clever idea!" cried Helen. "If you ever prove that to be true it will explain a lot of things."

"Perhaps I can do it sometime," continued the scientist, complacently, "and in the mean time I gratify my whim by taking observations whenever the opportunity offers. To-day I had a most charming ill.u.s.tration, and I became so much interested that it made me late in coming to you."

"You certainly have an admirable excuse," a.s.sented his hostess.