Volume I Part 4 (1/2)
”It was a present to me from my class in Germany”
”Did you have a class, sir, in Germany?”
”Only little boys, Charlie, like myself”
”Sir, did you teach when you were a little boy?”
”I began to teach before I was a great boy, but I taught only little boys then”
He placed me in a chair while he left the room for an instant I suppose he entered the next, for I heard hi back quickly, he placed a little spirit-laht kettle over it; it boiled very soon He et it; and when I told him I very seldom had tea at home, he answered, ”I seldom drink more than one cup myself; but I think one cannot hurt even such a nervous person as you are,--and besides, tea ihed, and drew et the tiny loaves, white and brown, nor the tiny pat of butter, nor the thin, transparent biscuits, crisp as hoar-frost, and delicate as if made of Israelitish hted to see me eat, nor would he allow ”
Frugal as he was, he never for an instant lost his cheery smile and companionable manner, and I observed he watched athered up and put away my last crumb, I slipped out of my chair, and pretended to pull hiht, we have ain, and returned laden with a wooden tray, on which he piled all the things and carried thehed and said,--
”I ht, as I have a visitor, so I shall not clear up until I have taken you ho to send for ht help you now”
”I shall not need help,--I want it at least in another way Will you now come here?”
We removed to the piano He took down from the shelves that overshadowed it three or four volu one, he laid it upon the desk and opened it I gazed in adolesi's ”Stabat Mater” He gathered froes a separate sheet--the alto part, beautifully copied--and handed it to , ”I know you will take care of it” So I did We worked very hard, but I think I never enjoyed any exercise sosmile, that he should not let me run on at that rate if I had not to be brushed up all in a hurry; but then, though I was ignorant, I was apt and very ardent I sang with an entire attention to his hints; and though I felt I was hurrying on too fast for et on very rapidly in the mere accession to acquaintance with the part We literally rushed through the ”Stabat Mater,” which was for the first part of the first grand en Te Deuht this very easy after the ”Stabat Mater,” but Davy silenced , ”You do not know the difficulty until you are placed in the choir” Our evening's practice lasted about two hours and a half He stroked uedto go on He shook his head
”I am afraid we have done too much now This day week the 'Creation,'--that is for the second ; and then, Charles, then the 'Messiah,'--last and best”
”Oh, the 'Messiah'! I know sos,--at least, I have heard the in 'Hallelujah'?” I had known of it fro it _before_ I heard it, how did I feel for it when it was to be brought so near me? I think that this oratorio is the most beloved of any by children and child-like souls How strangely in it all spirits take a part!
Margareth, our ancient nurse, caht She was not sent away, but Davy would accompany us to our own door Before I left his house, and while she aiting in the parlor, he said to me, ”Would you like to see where I sleep?” and called me into the most wonderful little rooreat closet one whole side, filled with every necessary exactly enough for one person The bed was perfectly plain, with no curtains and but a head-board, a ular portrait, over the head, of a gentle, which does not intellectualize the contour This worthy wore a floig and a shi+rt bedecked with frills
”That is John Sebastian Bach,” said Lenhart Davy,--”at least, they told me so in Dresden I keep it because it _means_ to be he”
”Ah!” I replied; for I had heard the jaw-breaking nah they, alas! too few, are scattered) than the sound of Lydian measures
CHAPTER VII
If I pere, I shall never take myself to the festival; but I must just say that we entertained Davy the next Sunday at dinner I had never seen my mother enjoy anybody's society so much; but I observed he talked not so much as he listened to her, and this may have been the secret He went very early, but on the Tuesday he fetchedthis ti earthly; it was joy and ease to pour it forth
When we had blended the bass and alto of the ”Creation” choruses, with a long spell at ”The heavens are telling,” Davy observed, ”Now for the 'Messiah,' but you will only be able to look at it with ht is rehearsal at the hall, and your o”
Rehearsal at the hall! What words were those? They rang in row very feverish Millicent was very kind toto my auspices, and I dared not introduce the subject, as none of them could feel as I did My mother watched me somewhat anxiously,--and no wonder; for I was very much excited But when the morrow came, my self-importance made a man of me, and I was calmer than I had been for days