n quite impossible had not Carlo Verdi had a good
friend living at Busseto, a shoemaker, named Pugnatta.

Pugnatta agreed to give Giuseppe board and lodging and send him to
the best school in the town, all for a small sum of three pence a day.
Giuseppe went to Pugnatta's; and while he was always in his place in
school and studied diligently, he still kept his situation as organist
of Le Roncole, walking there every Sunday morning and back again to
Busseto after the evening service.

His pay as organist was very small, but he also made a little money
playing for weddings, christenings and funerals. He also gained a few
lire from a collection which it was the habit of artists to make at
harvest time, for which he had to trudge from door to door, with a
sack upon his back. The poor boy's life had few comforts, and this
custom of collections brought him into much danger. One night while
he was walking toward Le Roncole, very tired and hungry, he did not
notice he had taken a wrong path, when suddenly, missing his footing,
he fell into a deep canal. It was very dark and very cold and his
limbs were so stiff he could not use them. Had it not been for an old
woman who was passing by the place and heard his cries, the exhausted
and chilled boy would have been carried away by the current.

After two years' schooling, Giuseppe's father persuaded his friend,
Antonio Barezzi of Busseto, from whom he was in the habit of buying
wines and supplies for his inn and shop,--to take the lad into his
warehouse. That was a happy day for Giuseppe when he went to live with
Barezzi, who was an enthusiastic amateur of music. The Philharmonic
Society, of which Barezzi was the president, met, rehearsed and gave
all its concerts at his house.

Giuseppe, though working hard in the warehouse, also found time to
attend all the rehearsals of the Philharmonics, and began the task
of copying out separate parts from the score. His earnestness in this
work attracted the notice of the conductor, Ferdinando Provesi, who
began to take great interest in the boy, and was the first one to
understand his talent and advised him to devote himself to music. A
Canon in the Cathedral offered to teach him Latin, and tried to make a
priest of him, saying, "What do you want to study music for? You
have a gift for Latin and it would be much better for you to become a
priest. What do you expect from your music? Do you think that some
day you will become organist of Bus