"Oh, then you have been taking Latin lessons from him, and so the acquaintance began?"
"No irony, please! It didn't begin that way at all. I suppose you know that in our little town there is a very well attended Calvinist church?"
"With us the laudable custom prevails of going to church every Sunday for the purpose of devotion."
"Don't make fun of me, please. Esaias is not only the schoolmaster, but the cantor and the organist as well. He has a splendid bass voice. When he intones the verse--
'How blest the man whose walk in life ...'
the whole podium trembles. It was that wondrously beautiful voice which first enthralled me."
"But I should have thought that the organ would have drowned the sound of the hymn?"
"But not only in church have I had the opportunity of hearing him, but at funerals also."
"Then you condescend to go to funerals too?"
"Not as a habit. But you must know that most of the people there beg me to act as sponsor to their new-born children. Now, two-thirds of our children seem only born to die, and I am obliged to always go to the funerals of my little _protégés_."
"Then Esaias is in the habit of speaking and singing over them?"
"Yes, and what beautiful speeches they are too, all in verse."
"Yes, he really makes most beautiful verses."
"And I've no doubt he wrote a nice onomasticon on St. Elizabeth's Day?"
"He did nothing of the kind. He's not that sort of man. It is not his habit to flatter anybody; on the contrary, he always tells them the truth to their faces."
"That is generally the distinguishing characteristic of all Calvinist schoolmasters."
"Well, but let us keep to the point. I left off at the funerals, I think. I was struck by the frequent mortality among our little ones, and set in movement a project among the ladies of the town for starting a _crèche_. The idea found zealous partisans. We soon found a large meeting-room; the ladies supplied linen in large quantities; milk and other necessary aliments were provided by public subscription; money we resolved to collect in the usual way."
"I see that you are a practical man. A charitable concert was indeed arranged, and a committee of seven appointed to manage it. The sessions of this committee were held in my house; mine was the most convenient locality, and I had a piano besides. Each member of the committee had her part assigned to her: one was to recite, another to sing a solo, a third to give a comic reading, a fourth to play a piece on the piano, a fifth to dance a Hungarian dance; I was to fiddle, Esaias was to sing the high priest's aria from the opera of _Nabucco_: 'He who trusts in the Lord!'--You know the rest."