o usually pays, but never say yes to a trombone nor
an oboe; and as for a kettle-drum, I wouldn't believe one on a stack of
Bibles!"

Over the grocer's shop was a little parlor, and in it was a spinet that
young Giuseppe had the use of four evenings a week. In his later years
Verdi used to tell of this, and once said that the idea of prohibition
and limit should be put on every piano--then the pupil would make the
best of his privileges. In those days there was a tax on spinets, and I
believe that this tax has never been rescinded, for you are taxed if
you keep a piano, now, in any part of Italy. Several times the poor
grocer's spinet stood in sore peril from the publicans and sinners, but
the bailiffs were bought off by Signore Barezzi, who came to the rescue.

The note of thrift was even then in Verdi's score, for he himself has
told how he induced the Barezzi household to patronize the honest grocer
with musical proclivities.

When twelve years of age Verdi occasionally played the organ in the
village church at Busseto. It will be seen from this that he had
courage, and even then possessed a trace of that pride and self-will
that was to be his disadvantage and then his blessing. Signore Barezzi's
attachment to the boy was very great, and we find the youngster was on
friendly terms with the family, having free use of their piano, with
valuable help and instruction from Signorina Grazia. When he was
seventeen he was easily the first musician in the place, and Busseto had
nothing more to offer in the way of advantages. He thirsted for a wider
career, and cast longing looks out into the great outside world. He had
played at Parma, only a few miles away, and the Bishop there, after
hearing him improvise on the organ, had paid him a doubtful compliment
by saying, "Your playing is surely unlike anything ever before heard in
Parma." Fair fortune smiled when Signore Barezzi secured for young Verdi
a free scholarship at the Conservatory at Milan.

The youth went gaily forth, attended by the blessings of the whole
village, to claim his honors.

Arriving at the Conservatory, the directors put him through his paces,
after the usual custom, to prove his fitness for the honor that had been
thrust upon him. He played first upon the piano, and the committee
advised together in whispered monotone. Then they asked him to play on
the organ, and there was more consultation, with argument which was
punctuated by rolling adjectives an