FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159  
160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   >>   >|  
came a voice from behind. The boy awoke with a start, and tried to butt his head through the pickets to escape in that direction. He thought it was the coachman. He turned and saw the kindly face of Signore Barezzi himself. "Do I like music? Me! No, I mean yes, when it is like that!" he exclaimed, beginning his reply with a tremolo and finishing bravura. "That is my daughter playing; come inside with me." The hand of the great man reached out, and the urchin clutched at it as if it were something he had been longing for. They walked through the big gates where a stone lion kept guard on each side. The lions never moved. They walked up the steps, and entering the parlor saw a young woman seated at the piano. "Grazia, dear, here is the little boy we saw the other day--you remember? I thought I would bring him in." The young woman came forward and touched the lad on his tawny head with one of her beautiful hands--the beautiful hands that had just been playing the "Sonata." "That's right, little boy, we have seen you outside there before, and if I had known you were there tonight, I would have gone out and brought you in; but Papa has done the service for me. Now, you must sit down right over there where I can see you, and I will play for you. But won't you tell us your name?" "Me?" replied the little boy, "why--why my name is Giuseppe Verdi--I am ten years old now--going on 'leven--you see, I like to hear you play because I play myself, a little bit!" * * * * * For over a hundred years three-fourths of Italy's population had been on reduced rations. Starvation even yet crouches just around the corner. In his childhood young Verdi used to wear a bit of rope for a girdle, and when hunger gnawed importunately, he would simply pull his belt one knot tighter, and pray that the ravens would come and treat him as well as they did Elijah. His parents were so poor that the question of education never came to them; but desire has its way, so we find the boy at ten years of age running errands for a grocer with a musical attachment. This grocer, at Busseto, Jasquith by name, hung upon the fringe of art, and made the dire mistake of mixing business with his fad, for he sold his wares to sundry gentlemen who played in bands. This led the good man to moralize at times, and he would say to Giuseppe, who had been promoted from errand-boy to clerk: "You can trust a first violin, and a 'cell
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159  
160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
playing
 

grocer

 

Giuseppe

 

thought

 

walked

 
beautiful
 
importunately
 

simply

 
gnawed
 

hunger


crouches

 

fourths

 
population
 

reduced

 
hundred
 

rations

 
Starvation
 
childhood
 

corner

 

tighter


girdle

 

running

 

sundry

 

gentlemen

 

played

 

business

 

mistake

 

mixing

 

violin

 

errand


moralize

 
promoted
 

fringe

 

parents

 

question

 
education
 

Elijah

 
ravens
 

desire

 
Busseto

attachment
 

Jasquith

 
musical
 
errands
 

inside

 

reached

 
daughter
 

bravura

 
beginning
 

tremolo