So one day he came
knocking at Nicholas Flamel's door.

"Come in," said the wise man, and there Gebhart found him sitting in the
midst of his books and bottles and diagrams and dust and chemicals and
cobwebs, making strange figures upon the table with jackstraws and a
piece of chalk--for your true wise man can squeeze more learning out of
jackstraws and a piece of chalk than we common folk can get out of all
the books in the world.

No one else was in the room but the wise man's servant, whose name was
Babette.

"What is it you want?" said the wise man, looking at Gebhart over the
rim of his spectacles.

"Master," said Gebhart, "I have studied day after day at the university,
and from early in the morning until late at night, so that my head has
hummed and my eyes were sore, yet I have not learned those things that
I wish most of all to know--the arts that no one but you can teach. Will
you take me as your pupil?"

The wise man shook his head.

"Many would like to be as wise as that," said he, "and few there be who
can become so. Now tell me. Suppose all the riches of the world were
offered to you, would you rather be wise?"

"Yes."

"Suppose you might have all the rank and power of a king or of an
emperor, would you rather be wise?"

"Yes."

"Suppose I undertook to teach you, would you give up everything of joy
and of pleasure to follow me?"

"Yes."

"Perhaps you are hungry," said the master.

"Yes," said the student, "I am."

"Then, Babette, you may bring some bread and cheese."

It seemed to Gebhart that he had learned all that Nicholas Flamel had to
teach him.

It was in the gray of the dawning, and the master took the pupil by the
hand and led him up the rickety stairs to the roof of the house, where
nothing was to be seen but gray sky, high roofs, and chimney stacks from
which the smoke rose straight into the still air.

"Now," said the master, "I have taught you nearly all of the science
that I know, and the time has come to show you the wonderful thing that
has been waiting for us from the beginning when time was. You have given
up wealth and the world and pleasure and joy and love for the sake of
wisdom. Now, then, comes the last test--whether you can remain faithful
to me to the end; if you fail in it, all is lost that you have gained."

After he said that he stripped his cloak away from his shoulders and
laid bare the skin. Then he took a bottle of red liquor and began
bathing his s