education in music. He determined to travel with the children. A
first experiment in January, 1762, had proved so successful that the
following September they set out for Vienna. Wolfgang was now six
years old and Marianne eleven.

At Linz they gave a successful concert and every one was delighted
with the playing of the children. From here they continued their
journey as far as the monastery of Ips, where they expected to stay
for the night. It had been a wonderful day, spent in sailing down
the majestic Danube, till they reached the grey old building with
its battlemented walls. Soon after they arrived, Father Mozart took
Wolfgang into the chapel to see the organ.

The child gazed with awe at the great pipes, the keyboard and the
pedals. He begged his father to explain their working, and then as
the father filled the great bellows the tiny organist pushed aside
the organ bench, stood upon the pedals and trod them, as though he had
always known how. The monks in the monastery hastened to the chapel,
holding their breath as one pointed to the figure of a tiny child in
the organ loft. Was it possible, they asked themselves, that a child
could produce such beautiful music? They remained rooted to the spot,
till Wolfgang happened to see them and crept meekly down from his
perch.

All the rest of the journey to Vienna, Wolfgang was the life of the
party, eager to know the name and history of everything they met. At
the custom-house on the frontier, he made friends with the officials
by playing for them on his violin, and thus secured an easy pass for
the party.