So you see we study right ahead from day to day. And when at
last the vacation comes, and all the others depart for their homes,
by coach or on horseback, then we stroll forth through the streets and
through the city gate with our instruments under our cloaks and the
world before us."
I can't tell how it was, but, while he spoke, the thought that such
learned people were so forlorn and forsaken in this world went to
my very heart. And then I thought of myself, and how I was not much
better off, and the tears came into my eyes. The cornetist eyed me
askance. "I wouldn't give a fig," he went on, "to travel with horses,
and coffee, and freshly-made beds, and nightcaps and boot-jacks, all
ordered beforehand. It's just the delightful part of it that, when
we set out early in the morning, and the birds of passage are winging
their flight high in the air above us, we do not know what chimney is
smoking for us today, and can never foresee what special piece of luck
may befall us before evening." "Yes," said the other, "and wherever we
go, and take out our instruments, people are merry; and when we play
at noon in the vestibule of some great country-house, the maids will
dance before the door, and their masters and mistresses will have the
drawing-room door opened a little, the better to hear the music, and
the clatter of plates and the smell of the roast float out through the
chink, and the young misses at table well-nigh twist their necks off
to see the musicians outside.
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