her off, ez it war. If ye'd like, she'll show ye what
she kin do with a bow. Play suthin' slow, Mona, fust," he added as a
violin was handed her, "till ye kinder ketch yerself, an' then suthin'
lively."

Mona somewhat nervously complied, and gaining courage as she forgot
where she was, skipped over a half-dozen of the familiar Scotch airs she
could play best, while the eyes of Fritz twinkled.

"She vash no peginner," he said elated; "she vash blain' alretty yet
very mooch." And seizing a music-rack and spreading a late composition
upon it, he added, "Ef de lady vill blease blay dot, ve'll see vot she
can do."

"Ye've got'r now, perfessor," interposed Jess, "she can't read that
music."

But a surprise was awaiting him, for though half-scared Mona hesitated
and made a few slips, she played the piece through to the end without a
halt.

"Why, girlie," exclaimed Jess, "I'm proud o' ye. I didn't think ye cud
do so well. Now, perfessor, ye kin take her in hand; 'n' mind ye don't
let up on her till she's larned the hull biznes, fer fiddlin's goin' to
be her futur' perfession."

That night, when Fritz had once more escaped the crowded theatre and was
quaffing his foaming stein, could any native American translate the
rapid fire jargon with which he related his morning experience, he would
have heard a marvellous tale.

"Mein Gott in Himmel!" Fritz exclaimed, after the fourth glass had been
emptied, "but she blayed mit such feelin's und such eyes dot mit me made
such strangeness feels. Ach, but she vas a vonder!"

And as time passed on, each of the two days a week when Mona came to
take her lesson only served to increase that "vonder," for now that her
timidity had worn away, the genius that lurked in her fingers asserted
itself. In technical art she was as yet a pupil, but in the far more
impressive art of inspiration and expression, so natural to her, she had
naught to learn.

"She blays mit her heart und all ofer, und vorgets all I tells her of
bosition und oxecution," explained Fritz to his cronies, "und ven she
looks at me I forgets meinself."

Then as the weeks went by, a new idea came to Fritz, who seldom had any;
and straightway he began to nurse it.

"Ef she so blays mit mein violin, ven I haf heard dat music all mein
life, vot vill beoples dinks who vash to hear her on de stage?" he said
to himself. "I vill say nodding und make some surbrises by and by."

That Mona had the same secret ambition he knew no