and accompany himself in songs and hymns. He had a pleasing tenor
voice, and sang with great expression. The wife also sang well, and,
joining in with her husband on these occasions, their example soon
induced the children to add their voices to the concert.

The long winter evenings were those specially devoted to music. It was
at one of such times, when the village street was deserted, and the
keen wind was sweeping it from end to end, sporting with the snow,
lifting it in whirling clouds, and building up drifts at every corner;
whilst away on the lonely marshes the ice-bound river lay shimmering
in the frosty moonlight, and the blast soughed through the tall reeds
and grasses, that the following little scene was being enacted within
the kitchen of the wheelwright's cottage.

[Illustration: '_He was imitating the playing of a violin._']

On the oaken settle next the stove sat a child of about five years of
age, following with the closest attention his father's performance on
the harp. In his hands were two sticks, with which he was imitating
the playing of a violin, keeping accurate time with his bow to the
rhythm of the music. The rapt expression on the boy's face was not
lost upon the father, and thoughts which more than once had occupied
Mathias's mind as he watched his child's clever imitation of the
village schoolmaster's playing of the violin were recurring with
redoubled force on this occasion. And when the boy lifted up his sweet
treble voice in unison with the rest its beauty sent a thrill through
the father's heart. His own life had been a keen disappointment with
respect to his passionate love for music--a love which had made him
yearn to know more of the art for which he had so profound a
reverence. Hence the determination that his child should have every
chance that he could afford of developing such talents as he possessed
gathered strength as he perceived the manifestations of delight on the
part of little Joseph every time the harp was produced, and as he
noted the quickness and accuracy with which the boy learnt the simple
melodies that were played to him. And as time went on these thoughts
kindled a hope in the father's breast that his little Joseph might one
day become a musician, and perhaps--who could tell?--he might even
rise to be a Capellmeister!

Joseph Haydn, the subject of our story and the centre of his father's
hopes, was born on March 31, 1732, and had attained his sixth year
when