Tiburius Knight is known as a big eccentric. Secondly, his mother was also characterized by oddities, the main of which was excessive concern for the health of her son. His tutor had such a strong craving for order that the boy hated all learning. The rich uncle also took part in the education of his nephew, intending to make him his heir. Tiburius grew pensive and distracted. When all his teachers died one after another, he remained lonely and helpless. Tiburius bought himself beautiful things, then he began to learn to play the violin, and began to write in oil. One fine day, Tiburius decided that he was seriously ill, and gradually stopped all relations with people. “Now Mr. Tiburius could be compared to a carefully plastered and whitewashed tower:

the swallows and woodpeckers, previously circling beside her, flew away, and she stands alone, abandoned by all. ” From morning to night he read books on medicine, finding in himself more and more new diseases. Not far from Tiburius a man settled, also known as an eccentric. As a doctor of medicine, he did not practice at all, but was engaged in tillage and gardening. Tiburius turned to him for advice. The doctor advised him to marry, but first of all go to the waters, where he was destined to meet his future wife. The marriage did not attract Tiburius, but the trip to the resort, on the contrary, seemed useful, and he set off on his journey.

Having traveled only one day, he imagined that he had gone very far from home, and there were still two days ahead. He also didn’t communicate with anyone at the resort and, discussing the treatment plan with a local doctor, regularly exercised on a once and for all chosen path. But once he changed the usual route and, leaving, as always, a stroller and servants on the road, he went along a narrow path. The path looped among the trees, the forest grew thicker, colder, and Tiburius realized that he had gone farther than he had expected. He turned back, walking faster and faster, but neither the familiar rock, nor his carriage was visible. Tiburius became scared, and he did what he had not done for a long time: he ran. But the forest didn’t shrink, the path curled and twisted between the trees:

Tiburius got lost. He was very tired, he walked and walked and reached a meadow spread on the side of a mountain. It was getting dark fast. Fortunately, Tiburius met a lumberjack, and he showed him the way to the city. Tiburius returned to the hotel on foot, in the middle of the night, which surprised the employees a lot. Fearing that this adventure would adversely affect his health, Tiburius took cover in two blankets and fell asleep. But, waking up, he felt great, and the fact that his legs hurt was completely natural - he had never made such long walks in his life. He wanted to understand how it turned out that he got lost, and after a while decided to repeat the walk along the forest path. Now he was sure that he would not go astray. He walked along the path, closely watching the stone wall along which it curled, and suddenly noticed that in a rocky place where the path was inconspicuous, another, more noticeable merged with it and went up directly into the forest nearby. Tiburius realized that every time he came back, he fell on this branch, which took him away from the stroller and from the servants. From that day he began to often walk along the forest trail and make sketches. Once he met a peasant girl on a trail with a basket full of strawberries. The girl treated him to berries and promised to show the places where strawberries grow. Tiburius began to often go to the forest with Mary - that was the name of the girl. When the holiday season ended, Tiburius returned to his estate, but again went to the waters in the spring. In the forest, he again met Maria and again began to walk often with the girl. One fine day, he noticed that Mary was a beauty, and soon the idea came to him of marrying her. The girl gave her consent. Tiburius moved to her homeland and began to farm himself, following the example of his healer. The doctor, who advised Tiburius to marry at the time, also moved to these places, he often visits Tiburius and respectfully calls him “my friend Theodore” - after all, Tiburius was not the name, but the nickname of this eccentric, until he became an ordinary happy person .