Rico and Wiseli | Page 6

moreover, my son, do you imagine that you have only to take a fiddle in your hand to be able to play on it at once? It takes a long time to do that. Come in here now, for a moment." And the teacher opened the door, and took his fiddle from its place on the wall. "There," he said, as he placed it on Rico's arm, "take the bow in your hand,--so, my boy; and if you can play me _c, d, e, f_, I will give you a half-gulden."
Rico had the fiddle really in his hand; his eyes sparkled with fire; _c, d, e, f,_--he played the notes firmly and perfectly correctly. "You little rascal!" cried the astonished teacher, "where did you learn that? Who taught you? How do you find the notes?"
"I can do more than that, if I may," said the boy.
"Play, then."
And Rico played correctly, and with enthusiasm,--
"Little lambkins, come down From the bright sunny height; The daylight is fading, The sun says, 'Good-night!'"
[Illustration: RICO PLAYED CORRECTLY, AND WITH ENTHUSIASM]
The teacher sunk into a chair, and put his spectacles on his nose. His eyes rested on Rico's fingers as he played, then on his sparkling eyes, and again on his hands. When the air was finished, he said, "Come here to me, Rico;" and, moving his chair into the light, he placed the lad directly before him. "Now I have something to say to you. Your father is an Italian; and I know that down there all sorts of things go on of which we have no idea here in the mountains. Now look me straight in the eye, and answer me truly and honestly. How did you learn to play this air so correctly?"
Looking up with his honest eyes, the boy replied, "I learned it from you, in the school where it is so often sung."
These words gave an entirely new aspect to the affair. The teacher stood up, and went back and forth several times in the room. Then he was himself the cause of this wonderful event; there was no necromancy concerned in it.
In a far better humor, he took out his purse, saying, "Here is your half-gulden, Rico; it is justly yours. Now go; and for the future be very attentive to the music-lesson as long as you go to the school. In that way you may, perhaps, accomplish something; and in twelve or fourteen years perhaps you may be able to buy a fiddle. Now you may go."
Rico cast one look at the fiddle, and departed with deep sadness in his heart.
Stineli came running to meet him from behind the wood-pile. "You did stay a long time. Have you asked the question?"
"It is all of no use," said the boy; and his eyebrows came together in his distress, and formed a thick black line across his forehead over his eyes. "A fiddle costs six hundred blutsgers; and in fourteen years I can buy one, when everybody will be dead. Who will be living fourteen years from now? There, you may have this; I do not want it." With these words he pressed the half-gulden into Stineli's hand.
"Six hundred blutsgers!" repeated the girl, horrified. "But where did this half-gulden come from?"
Rico told her all that had happened at the teacher's, ending with the same words expressing his great regret, "It is all of no use!"
Stineli tried to console him a little with the half-gulden; but he was furious at the thought of the innocent piece of money, and would not even look at it.
So Stineli said, "I will put it with my blutsgers, and we will have it all between us."
Stineli herself was very much discouraged now; but as they went around the corner into the field, the little pathway that led to their doors shone so prettily in the bright sunlight, and the plat before the houses was so white and dry, that she called out,--
"See, see! now it is summer, Rico; and we can go up into the wood, and we will be happy again. Shall we go next Sunday?"
"Nothing will ever make me happy again," said Rico; "but if you want to go, I will go with you."
When they reached the door, they had arranged to go to the wood on the following Sunday, and Stineli was very happy at the thought. She did all that she was able to do through the week, and there was a great deal of work for her. Peterli, Sami, and Urschli had the measles, and in the stable one of the goats was sick, and needed hot water very often; and Stineli had to run hither and thither, lending a helping hand in every direction as soon as she came home from school, and on Saturday all day long until late