, pitiless
streets--during the past eight-and-forty hours, without food or
shelter, to taste the warm bread-and-milk which his kindly hostess had
contrived to eke out of her small stock? Finally, was it not the
height of luxury to such an one to stretch his weary limbs beside the
dying embers, and sleep the sleep which exhausted nature demanded?

The heart of Spangler might well have been touched by the distress
into which his young friend had fallen, seeing that he was already
acquainted with some of the circumstances to which his forlorn
condition was due. And life had promised so differently for poor
Joseph but a short while ago! When, some four years prior to this
meeting, he had welcomed the coming of his younger brother Michael to
the Cantorei, or choir-school of St. Stephen's, he could not have
divined that this brother would, indirectly, be the cause of his being
turned adrift into the streets. Yet such was the melancholy fact, and
as to the manner in which this was brought about we may properly
inquire while the subject of this history lies wrapped in slumber
beside the garret stove.

About fifteen leagues to the southward of Vienna, and amidst the
marshy flats bordering upon the River Leitha, lies the little village
of Rohrau, which derives its name from its situation. At the extreme
end of the long, straggling street which comprises the village
stands, close to the river banks, a low, thatched building--half
house, half cottage--with a wheelwright's shop adjoining. The house
stands back a little way from the road, with a patch of greensward
before it, on which, in the days to which our story belongs, one might
have seen a waggon or two in process of repair, and possibly have
caught a glimpse of the worthy wheelwright himself at his work.

Mathias Haydn, master wheelwright, and sexton of the little church
standing on the hill outside the village, was in the fullest sense
entitled to rank as a worthy: he was not only a deeply religious man,
but one who was looked up to and respected by every one in the village
and for many a mile around. There was an air of refinement about his
home which raised it far above the level of the homes by which it was
surrounded. A strong taste for music formed a part of Mathias's
nature, and it was shared to a great extent by his wife Maria.
Regularly each Sunday evening, when the duties of the day were
finished, he would bring out his harp, which he had learnt to play by
ear,