Ill-humoredly he threw off his cloak, and with a gloomy countenance paced to and fro in the narrow chamber. Ludwig and his mother quietly withdrew to a corner. She could scarcely keep back the tears. Her little son clung to her anxiously and tenderly.
Some minutes passed in gloomy, oppressive stillness. At last Johann Beethoven, without saying a word, seated himself at the piano and touched the keys. The tender tones which he drew from the instrument seemed gradually to allay his agitation and brighten his darkened countenance. He played on, and finally began the pleasant melody of a folk-song, gently humming it at first, and then singing it with the full power of his voice.
Upon hearing the first tones of the song, the little Ludwig raised his head and fixed his gaze with rapt attention and glistening eyes upon his father. As he began to sing aloud, the boy got down from his mother’s lap and, step by step, unheard by his father, approached him, until he stood close by his side, and clung to him as tenderly as he had clung to his mother a moment before. All his fears were dispelled by the soothing, gentle tones of the music. He listened only to them. All else was buried and forgotten. His eyes were raised to heaven, he stood transfixed, and his young soul fluttered, as if on wings, among the soft modulations of the simple yet heart-stirring, beautiful melody of the song.
His father stopped abruptly, turned round, and saw the child standing near him, as it were, in a kind of ecstasy.
“Ha! Ludwig, are you dreaming?” he asked, not harshly as before, but with an entirely changed and softer tone.
“No, father, I was only listening to you,” replied the child, “and it seemed to me that I heard an angel singing in heaven. It was beautiful. Oh, if I could only play something too!”
“Try it,” said his father encouragingly, as he placed the boy’s fingers upon the keys. “Keep your fingers firm and let them follow as I guide them.”
The little Ludwig was greatly pleased. His father repeated the melody which had so much delighted him. After he had played it a few times, the boy said:
“It is all right now, father. Now I can play it all alone.”
“Oho!” said his father. “You can hardly do that yet. You are venturing a little too far.”