say? A forlorn little fellow like you buy a fiddle! Do you even know
what the instrument is? Have you any idea of how old I was, and what
I knew, before I obtained one? I was a teacher, a regular teacher;
was twenty-two years old, with an assured profession, and not a
child like you.

"Now I will tell you what a fiddle costs, and then you will see how
foolish you are. Six hard gulden I paid for mine. Can you realize what
that means? We will separate it into blutsgers. If one gulden contains a
hundred blutsgers, then six guldens will be equal to six times one
hundred,--quickly, quickly! Now, Rico, you are generally ready enough."

"Six hundred blutsgers," said the lad softly, for he was quite
overpowered with the magnitude of this sum as compared with Stineli's
twelve blutsgers.

"And, moreover, my son, do you imagine that you have only to take a
fiddle in your hand to be able to play on it at once? It takes a long
time to do that. Come in here now, for a moment." And the teacher opened
the door, and took his fiddle from its place on the wall. "There," he
said, as he placed it on Rico's arm, "take the bow in your hand,--so, my
boy; and if you can play me _c, d, e, f_, I will give you a
half-gulden."

Rico had the fiddle really in his hand; his eyes sparkled with fire; _c,
d, e, f,_--he played the notes firmly and perfectly correctly. "You
little rascal!" cried the astonished teacher, "where did you learn that?
Who taught you? How do you find the notes?"

"I can do more than that, if I may," said the boy.