admiration, but his artistic temperament frequently threatened to
be his undoing. For the young enthusiast was no sooner seated at the
organ to conduct the church music than he forgot that the choir and
congregation were depending on him and would begin to improvise at
such length that the singing had to stop altogether, while the people
listened in mute admiration. Of course there were many disputes
between the new organist and the elders of the church, but they
overlooked his vagaries because of his genius.

Yet he must have been a trial to that well-ordered body. Once he asked
for a month's leave of absence to visit Lübeck, where the celebrated
Buxtehude was playing the organ in the Marien Kirche during Advent.
Lübeck was fifty miles from Arnstadt, but the courageous boy made the
entire journey on foot. He enjoyed the music at Lübeck so much that
he quite forgot his promise to return in one month until he had stayed
three. His pockets being quite empty, he thought for the first time of
returning to his post. Of course there was trouble on his return, but
the authorities retained him in spite of all, for the esteem in which
they held his gifts.

Bach soon began to find Arnstadt too small and narrow for his soaring
desires. Besides, his fame was growing and his name becoming known in
the larger, adjacent towns. When he was offered the post of organist
at St. Blasius at Mülhausen, near Eisenach, he accepted at once. He
was told he might name his own salary. If Bach had been avaricious he
could have asked a large sum, but he modestly named the small amount
he had received at Arnstadt with the addition of certain articles of
food which should be delivered at his door, gratis.

Bach's prospects were now so much improved that he thought he might