plied himself
to master the language, and study the character and needs of his
adopted country, that he might be well informed. During the period of
insecurity in political affairs, the tobacco factory had to be closed
and Nicholas Chopin looked for other activity. A few years later we
find him in the household of Countess Skarbek, as a tutor to her son,
Frederic. Here he met his bride, Justina de Krzyzanowska, a young
lady of noble but poor family, whom he married in 1806. She became the
mother of his four children, three girls and a boy.

The boy Frederic Chopin, was born on March 1, 1809, in the little
village of Zelazowa Wola, belonging to the Countess Skarbek, about
twenty-eight miles from Warsaw. It is probable the family did not
remain here long, for the young husband was on the lookout for more
profitable employment. He was successful, for on October 1, 1810,
he was appointed Professor of French in the newly founded Lyceum in
Warsaw. He also soon organized a boarding school for boys in his own
home, which was patronized by the best Polish families of the country.

Surrounded by refined, cultivated people, in an atmosphere at once
moral and intellectual, little Frederic passed a fortunate childhood.
He soon manifested such fondness for music, especially for the piano,
that his parents allowed him to have lessons, his teacher being
Adalbert Zywny, the best-known master of the city. It is related that
Zywny only taught his little pupil first principles, for the child's
progress was so extraordinary that before long he had mastered all
his teacher could impart, and at twelve he was left to shape his own
musical destiny.

He early gave proofs of his talents. Before he was eight years old
he played at a large evening company, with such surprising cleverness
that it was predicted he would become another Mozart. The next year he
was invited to take part in a large concert given under distinguished
patronage. The boy was a simple, modest child, and played the piano as
the bird sings, with unconscious art. When he returned home after this
concert, his mother asked: "What did the people like best?" and he
answered naively: "Oh, mama, every one was looking at my collar."

After this, little Frederic became more than ever the pet of the
aristocracy of Warsaw; his charming manners, his unspoiled nature, his
musical gifts made him welcome in princely homes. He had also begun
to compose; indeed these efforts started soon af