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THE GOLDEN TREASURE 887 |
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and tumbled over, and the others took their legs off with themselves very rapidly.
The town musician was very genteel and fine. He was the son of the royal plate-washer. He was very fond of Peter, and would sometimes take him to his home, and he gave him a violin, and taught him to play it. It seemed as if the whole art lay in the boy's fingers ; and he wanted to be more than a drummer—he wanted to become musician to the town.
1 I'll be a soldier/ said Peter ; for he was still quite a little lad, and it seemed to him the finest thing in the world to carry a gun, and to be able to march ' left, right, left, right/ and to wear a uniform and a sword.
1 Ah, you must learn to obey the drum-skin, drum, dum, dum ! ' said the Drum.
1 Yes, if he could only march his way up to be a general ! ' observed his father ; ' but before he can do that there must be war.'
' Heaven forbid ! ' said his mother.
' We have nothing to lose/ remarked the father.
' Yes, we have my boy/ she retorted.
' But suppose he came back a general ! r said the father.
' Without arms and legs ! ' cried the mother. ' No, I would rather keep my golden treasure whole.'
' Drum, dum, dum !' The Fire-drum and all the other drums were beating, for war had come. The soldiers all set out, and the son of the drummer followed them. ' Redhead. Golden treasure ! '
The mother wept; the father in fancy saw him ' famous'; the town musician was of opinion that he ought not to go to war, but should stay at home and learn music.
1 Red-head/ said the soldiers, and little Peter laughed ; but when one of them sometimes said to another, ' Foxey/ he would bite his teeth together and look another way— into the wide world : he did not care for the nickname.
The boy was active, pleasant of speech, and good humoured ; and these qualities are the best canteen, said his elder comrades.
And many a night he had to sleep under the open sky, wet through with the driving rain or the falling mist; but his good humour never forsook him. The drum-sticks |
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