THE next day after they had eaten lunch and the cows had settled for their afternoon rest, Vinzi looked again and again at the mountains.
Suddenly jumping up, he said, "It must be two o'clock. Yesterday as I came back the sun stood above the Felsenhorn. That was at three o'clock. In another hour it will be there again."
"Yes, run off quickly, for the sooner you go, the sooner you will be back to tell me all about it," urged Stefeli.
When Vinzi mounted the steps at Mrs. Troll's house, Alida came running to meet him and exclaimed, "You come just at the right time! They are all away and we will be alone. This is the time you should always come. Let us begin at once," she proposed energetically, and took a small sheet of music and began teaching rather hurriedly, for she did not wish to devote much time to the names of the notes.
Vinzi gave close attention and understood quickly, and they soon left the reading of music to study the keys.
To make her teaching more vivid, Alida struck the key each time it was named.
Vinzi was lost in astonishment and asked suddenly, "But how is the music made?"
"It is all printed in the book; we read it there and play it," explained Alida.
"But someone made it first, didn't they?" asked Vinzi timidly. "Don't you think if one only knew how, one could write down all the tunes one hears?"
"That's not necessary for there are plenty of pieces of music already," said Alida with a sigh as she glanced at the big book of exercises.