"I know, Georg, that you sharpened the pens, and I believe you when you tell me that you aired the dressing-gown, but I shall give you a new duty to-day. See that you perform it promptly!"
Georg listened in wonder, for never before had his father addressed him with such hardness of manner, and instinctively the boy drew a pace backward.
"A new—duty?" he stammered.
"I want you to take those musical toys and throw them into the pond, or give them to some one who never comes into this house."
Georg was dumfounded.
"Throw them away—my trumpet, my fife, my—"
Breathless with consternation the boy rushed to the table and gathered his treasures protectingly in his arms.
"These—I must—keep," he asserted chokingly, eying his father from the breastworks of drum and bell.
For answer Mr. Händel pointed to the door, and Georg, reading naught but doom in that significant gesture, dropped his toys with a crash and clasped his father's arm beseechingly.