"What would your song be about?"
"Why, about roses and the sunshine on them, the sunlight on the mountains and the foaming waters, and about all the beautiful things up there." Vinzi's eyes sparkled as he spoke, for all the while he kept hearing the melody that made his song and felt the urge to sing it aloud.
"Well, I'll tell Father Silvanus about it, and we'll see what he has to say about it," and with these words the grandfather shook Vinzi's hand and the boy ran off down the mountain.
Loud shouts came from the pump where the three boys were washing. They all pounced on him at once and wanted to know what he had done all day, at the same time telling him what had happened to them. In the middle of it all Russli tugged away at his coat, for he had something important to tell him. He was at last able to make himself heard and said, "I didn't lash one of them all day, not a single one."
And upon hearing this report, Vinzi drew a beautiful new pipe out of his pocket and gave it to the little fellow. He had attained such skill in carving pipes that he had made one while seated among the roses that morning.
Cousin Lorenz and his wife Josepha greeted him as heartily as though he had been away a long time and when he delivered the grandfather's message, his cousin said, "Yes, yes; go up there just as much as you please, only return to us each evening," and his wife added, "It would suit me if things would never change, and if Vinzi could stay with us always."
A little later when Vinzi sat on the doorsill of the hayrick, he had so much to think about that it seemed he would never get to bed. The grandfather's history had made a deep impression on him, and while the old man had talked an idea had come to him that had kept growing more and more vivid. It seemed he must carry it out at once.
Taking up his pipe, Vinzi played softly to himself. Often the notes died away, and Vinzi hearkened dreamily as he hummed, trying to round out a melody. He gazed around him. All the houses were dark, but the stars shone so wonderfully bright that he hushed both pipe and voice and gazed up at the sky in silent devotion.
"Oh, now I know it!" he exclaimed suddenly, and lifting his shawm again enticed from it a series of jubilant notes. Then he closed his little door, stepped to his fragrant bed of hay and lay down in whole-hearted satisfaction. But now wonder-music seemed to begin again and it seemed that angelic choirs were singing to him from the starlit heavens, but Vinzi heard it in a dream, for as soon as his head had touched the pillow the boy was fast asleep.