"Leave Remi? never!"
"Well, then," replied the barber, sorrowfully, "let me give you a book and you can learn what you do not know from that." He took a book out of one of the drawers, entitled, "The Theory of Music." It was old and torn, but what did that matter? Taking a pen, he sat down and wrote on the first page:
"To a child who, when he becomes celebrated, will remember the barber of Mendes."
I don't know if there were any other professors of music at Mendes, but that was the only one we knew, and we never forgot him.
CHAPTER XXIV
FRIENDSHIP THAT IS TRUE
I loved Mattia when we arrived at Mendes, but when we left the town I loved him even more. I could not tell him before the barber how I felt when he cried out: "Leave my friend!"
I took his hand and squeezed it as we tramped along.