iceable in the child. The only
time he would rouse up, was when a hand organ would come through the
village street; then he would follow it as far as his little legs
would carry him, and nothing could keep him in the house, when he
heard this music. Intelligent, reserved and quiet, every one loved
him.

In 1820, when Giuseppe was seven years old, Carlo Verdi committed a
great extravagance for an innkeeper; he bought a spinet for his son,
something very unheard of for so poor a man to do.

Little Giuseppe practised very diligently on his spinet. At first he
could only play the first five notes of the scale. Next he tried
very hard to find out chords, and one day was made perfectly happy
at having sounded the major third and fifth of C. But the next day
he could not find the chord again, and began to fret and fume and
got into such a temper, that he took a hammer and tried to break
the spinet in pieces. This made such a commotion that it brought his
father into the room. When he saw what the child was doing, he gave a
blow on Giuseppe's ear that brought the little fellow to his senses
at once. He saw he could not punish the good spinet because he did not
know enough to strike a common chord.

His love of music early showed itself in many ways. One day he
was assisting the parish priest at mass in the little church of
Le Roncole. At the moment of the elevation of the Host, such sweet
harmonies were sounding from the organ, that the child stood perfectly
motionless, listening to the beautiful music, all unconscious of
everything else about him.

"Water," said the priest to the altar boy. Giuseppe, not hearing him,
the priest repeated the call. Still the child, who was listening to
the music, did not hear. "Water," said the priest a third time and
gave Giuseppe such a sharp kick that he fell down the steps of the
altar, hitting his head on the stone floor, and was taken unconscious
into the sacristy.

After this Giuseppe was allowed to have music lessons with
Baistrocchi, the organist of the village church. At the end of a
year Baistrocchi said there was nothing more he could teach his young
pupil, so the lessons came to an end.

Two years later, when old Baistrocchi died, Giuseppe, who was then
only ten, was made organist in his place. This pleased his parents
very much, but his father felt the boy should be sent to school, where
he could learn to read and write and know something of arithmetic.
This would have bee