even that he could hear the bluebells and violets singing, and perfume
and color translated themselves into analogies of sound. This poetic
imagination grew with his years and widened with his experience,
becoming the cardinal motive of Ole Bull's art life. For a long time the
young boy had longed for a violin of his own, and finally his uncle who
gave the musical parties presented him with a violin. Ole worked so hard
in practicing on his new treasure that he was soon able to take part in
the little concerts.

There happened to be at this time in Bergen a professor of music named
Paulsen, who also played skillfully on the violin. Originally from
Denmark, he had come to Bergen on business, but, finding the brandy so
good and cheap, and his musical talent so much appreciated, he postponed
his departure so long that he became a resident. Paulsen, it was said,
would show his perseverance in playing as long as there remained a drop
in the brandy bottle before him, when his musical ambition came to a
sudden close. When the old man, for he was more than sixty when young
Ole Bull first knew him, had worn his clothes into a threadbare state,
his friends would supply him with a fresh suit, and at intervals he gave
concerts, which every one thought it a religious duty to attend. It
was to this Dominie Sampson that Ole Bull was indebted for his earliest
musical training; but it seems that the lad made such swift progress
that his master soon had nothing further to teach him. Poor old Paulsen
was in despair, for in his bright pupil he saw a successful rival, and,
fearing that his occupation was gone, he left Bergen for ever.

In spite of the boy's most manifest genius for music, his father was
bent on making him a clergyman, going almost to the length of forbidding
him to practice any longer on the dearly loved fiddle, which had now
become a part of himself; but Ole persevered, and played at night
softly, in constant fear that the sounds would be heard. But his mother
and grandmother sympathized with him, and encouraged his labors of love
in spite of the paternal frowns. The author of a recent article in an
American magazine relates an interview with Ole Bull, in which the aged
artist gave some interesting facts of that early period in his life.
His father's assistant, who was musical, occasionally received musical
catalogues from Copenhagen, and in one of these the boy first saw the
name of Paganini, and reference to his famous