She did come almost immediately; and before she had fairly time to ask him how he found himself, he said,—
"Will you be so good as to take down the fiddle that hangs there on the wall, and give it to the little orphan boy? I wish to make him a present of it, and he must be very careful of it."
Naturally the good woman was very much surprised, and could not refrain from exclaiming repeatedly, "What will Rico do with it? What will Rico say to this?" Presently she noticed, however, that the schoolmaster seemed a little restless, as if he were in a hurry to have the thing done.
So she left him, and hastened as quickly as possible across the fields with the gift under her arm; for she was also impatient to know how Rico would take this rare piece of good fortune.
He was standing in the doorway of his cottage. At a motion from the grandmother, he ran towards her.
"Here, Rico," she said, and handed him the violin. "The schoolmaster sends this to you: it is yours."
The boy stood as if he were in a dream, but it was true. The grandmother was really standing there, holding the fiddle out to him.
Trembling with pleasure and excitement, he took his present at last, put it on his arm, and gazed at it in a silly sort of way, as if he thought it might vanish presently, as quickly as it had come, if he did not keep his eyes on it.
"You must be very careful of it," said the old woman, delivering her message faithfully. She was much inclined to laugh, however; for it did not seem to her that the warning was at all necessary. "And, Rico, think about the teacher, and do not forget what he has done for you: he is very ill."
The grandmother went into the house with these words; and the boy hastened up into his own bedroom, where he was always alone.