Page:The Country Boy.djvu/52

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The method she taught was like all really great inventions—it was simple; and I have to smile now when I think that no one thought of it before. It was better perhaps for a transient teacher to teach than one regular in the city—in fact, it took a brave person to buy property and settle down on such a method. The first day I came with a quart of warm milk; that is, I started with a quart of milk, but the sidewalks were very poor in Silverton then. I reached her home and prepared for the lesson. She gave me a sort of a lecture first on music, said that it had come to stay, that it would soon be counted as a part of every first-class education, and that it got easier as one progressed. Then she produced a large music book with the notes all numbered. The keys of her organ were numbered, and then with an indelible pencil she numbered my finger nails, and I took the stool; and while she counted time with a short smooth pointer—“One, Two, Three, Four,” I began to get in touch with the various numbers; and as I was fairly good in numbers up to seven, I progressed so rapidly that after the second lesson she gave me a chance on a reduced course in classical music, which was to