strain of night
study following the grind of machine work during the day was plainly
telling on his health. But the boy pleaded hard:

"Take away my music and you take away my life," he said. "Some day
father and mother will see and then they'll let me study with you."

Von Barwig looked at the boy sadly.

"They love me and they want to see me famous, but they don't
understand. They work so hard, they have so little to eat, and there
are so many of them. Mother can't work, you know, she has to nurse the
baby. I must do all I can; I'm the eldest, it's my duty!"

The boy's eyes filled with tears as he thought of the hardships his
parents went through. "Father worked till twelve o'clock last night;
he's working now," and the little chap looked at the cuckoo clock,
which was just striking ten.

"How long will it be before I can play to the gentlemen you're going to
take me to?" he asked wistfully.

"I think you'd better have a little rest before you play to them,
Josef. You've been working very hard; up at five, to bed at midnight!"
Von Barwig noticed that Josef's face was peaked and white, but his
great black eyes looked appealingly at his master.

"But I must play to them; they'll give me money and I can give the
money to father. Then he'll believe me, and he'll believe you," said
the boy in a tearful voice. His urgent, appealing manner had its
effect on Von Barwig.

"I'll take you to-morrow morning," he said. "Will your father let you
go?"

"I'll beg him, I'll beg him, oh, so hard, on my bended knees. He won't
refuse, he can't refuse! If he does, I--I'll just make an excuse and
leave the machine as if I were going for oil, or cotton or something.
I'll come! Don't disappoint me, will you?"

And so it was arranged that the boy should call for Von Barwig on the
morrow and that they should go to Steinway Hall, where Josef should
play before some musical gentlemen that Von Barwig had come to know.

The morning arrived, but little Josef did not appear. After waiting
three hours, Von Barwig made up his mind that the father would not let
the boy go, so he sadly gave up the idea for that day, and waited till
evening for Josef to come as usual for his lesson. When the child did
not come, Von Barwig experienced again that sensation of fear, for the
first time in several years; and with it came the train of sickening
thought, the old dread of impending evil. Von Barwig soon threw this
off, and waited fo