One evening his father was away, and there arose a tremendous hubbub among the pupils which the assistant master was quite powerless to quell. Frédéric came in, saw how things were, and good-naturedly sat down to the piano. Calling the other boys around him, he promised, if they kept quite still, to tell them a new and most thrilling story on the piano. This at once quieted them. Frédéric extinguished all the lights (for he was all his life fond of playing in the dark). Then he sat down to the piano and began his story.
He described robbers coming to a house, putting ladders to the windows, and then, frightened by a noise, rushing away into the woods. They go on and on, deeper and deeper into the wild recesses of the forest, and then they lie down under the trees and soon fall asleep. He went on, playing more and more softly, until he found that the sleep was not only in his story, but had overcome his listeners. On this he crept out noiselessly to tell his mother and sisters what had happened, and then went back with them to the room with a light. Every one of the boys was fast asleep. Frédéric returned to the piano, struck some noisy chords, the enchantment was over, and all the sleepers were rubbing their eyes and wondering what was the matter.
It was a rainy day. George, spoiling for something to do, said: "Say, Fred, here's a question you can't answer within five minutes, or ten either. Wan' to try?"
"A lad, carrying a page of that circular to the printer who printed it, stubbed his toe. It hurt him so that he went to the same place the 'three wise men of Gotham' did, and almost lost his life, because that which ruins many a field of wheat was in his drinking water, and he couldn't drink it. But he put all three together, ate it, and saved his life. What did he eat?"
"With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver! And folks who put me in a passion May find me ---- to another fashion."
In the above lines of a famous poem the word which fills the blank is the last syllable of the five words described below.
1. By bonnie braes in Scotland old, My notes are heard with love untold.
2. Tars in hours of well-earned leisure With twinkling feet would tread my measure.
3. A man in love with rocks and ore Can by my aid know Nature's lore.