people. For Mr. Bhaer explained to him that a good plain education is
necessary for everyone, and that no amount of money should hire him to
go where he might be tempted to do wrong. Nat quite agreed to this, and
it was a pleasant sight to see the innocent-hearted lad go driving away
in the gay wagons that stopped at the gate for him, or to hear him come
fiddling home tired but happy, with his well-earned money in one pocket,
and some "goodies" from the feast for Daisy or little Ted, whom he never
forgot.

"I'm going to save up till I get enough to buy a violin for myself, and
then I can earn my own living, can't I?" he used to say, as he brought
his dollars to Mr. Bhaer to keep.

"I hope so, Nat; but we must get you strong and hearty first, and put a
little more knowledge into this musical head of yours. Then Mr. Laurie
will find you a place somewhere, and in a few years we will all come to
hear you play in public."

With much congenial work, encouragement, and hope, Nat found life
getting easier and happier every day, and made such progress in his
music lessons that his teacher forgave his slowness in some other
things, knowing very well that where the heart is the mind works best.
The only punishment the boy ever needed for neglect of more important
lessons was to hang up the fiddle and the bow for a day. The fear of
losing his bosom friend entirely made him go at his books with a will;
and having proved that he could master the lessons, what was the use of
saying "I can't?"

Daisy had a great love of music, and a great reverence for any one who
could make it, and she was often found sitting on the stairs outside
Nat's door while he was practising. This pleased him very much, and he
played his best for that one quiet little listener; for she never would
come in, but preferred to sit sewing her gay patchwork, or tending one
of her many dolls, with an expression of dreamy pleasure on her face
that made Aunt Jo say, with tears in her eyes: "So like my Beth," and
go softly by, lest even her familiar presence mar the child's sweet
satisfaction.

Nat was very fond of Mrs. Bhaer, but found something even more
attractive in the good professor, who took fatherly care of the shy
feeble boy, who had barely escaped with his life from the rough sea on
which his little boat had been tossing rudderless for twelve years. Some
good angel must have been watching over him, for, though his body had
suffered, his soul seemed to h