I was now passing through the happiest days. I had plenty of work, and enjoyed my books in the evening. My wife was proud of my boy's success in the school, and looking forward to placing our youngest there, as soon as he was five years old. As I understood music, I bought a harmonium, and set my youngest boy to it. For instruction book I used Czerny's "School of Velocity," which I had bought as waste-paper for twopence.

In a twelvemonth he could rattle off these exercises as fast as the instrument could speak, though he was slightly bothered with some of the runs extending beyond the compass of the instrument. But I had to cut my coat according to my cloth, and a harmonium was, of course, much cheaper than a piano.