Chapter 14　A Treasure Hunter and a Secret

Have you ever had spring fever?Both kinds of spring fever?Yes, there are two kinds.

Do you remember how lazy and sleepy and tired you have sometimes felt on a warm spring day, when you didn't want to study or work or play or even eat?That's one kind of spring fever.

Then again, do you remember how energetic and healthy and restless you have sometimes felt in the spring?When you wanted to run and shout and turn cartwheels?When sitting still was terrible?When you felt as if you could do anything hard and beat anybody at anything?That's the second kind of spring fever.

Well, after the Middle Ages, the whole world got spring fever. It was the second kind-the full-of-energy spring fever-and it lasted not just a few days in spring but many years.

Italy caught the fever first around 1400. Just as life is born again in the spring after the dark winter and blossoms forth in green leaves and bright flowers, new life was born again in art, literature, architecture, exploration, and trade after the dark of the Middle Ages.This born-again time is called the Renaissance, which means rebirth.

Now one of the germs that had made the world catch this Renaissance fever was the interest people began to take in the skill and learning of ancient times. Statues and