"It will not be for long, mother!" he said. "The master has found fault with me more than ever to-day. He made me sing passage after passage over and over, until some of the boys were quite angry, and said, afterwards, they wished I and my voice were with the old hermit who houses us. Yet he never seemed pleased. He did not even say it was any better."
"But he never gave thee up, darling!" she said.
"No; he only told me to come early, alone, to-morrow, and he would give me a lesson by myself, and perhaps I should learn better."
A twinkle of joy danced in her eyes, dimmed with so many tears.
"Silly child!" she said fondly, "as silly as thy poor mother herself! The master only takes trouble, and chastens and rebukes, because he thinks it is worth while; because thou art trying, and learning, and art doing a little better day by day. He knows what thy best can be, and will never be content with anything but thy very best."
"Is it that, mother? Is it indeed that?" said the boy, looking up with a sudden dawning of hope.
And a sweet dawn of promise met him in his mother's eyes as she answered,—
"It is even that, my own, for thee and for me!"
IV.
With a glad heart, Gottlieb dressed the next morning before Lenichen was awake, and was off to the choir-master for his lesson alone.