he replied, 'and his whole livelihood was bound up in it.' The count,
however, was not to be thwarted: he gave him fifty ducats for the
piece he had played, and then concluded the bargain on the following
conditions: three hundred gulden for the violin, besides a house
to live in, food and a quart of wine daily; ten gulden monthly, two
barrels of beer and one suit of clothes yearly, fruit and as many
hares as he needed for his kitchen. The agreement having been
concluded, George Stezitzky played a solo on the violin: then received
it as a present from the count. The man who had parted with it lived
sixteen years more, thus costing the count in actual money 8733
florins 20 kreuzers, equal to 10,380 florins 24 kreuzers of the
present currency. A large sum to give for a violin."

"Yes," replied Jörgel, who appeared to have been much interested
by the whole history; "but what puzzles me is, how a poor devil who
worked so slow could be a genius. I thought sharp people took more
after the Almighty, and hurried up their work in the twinkling of an
eye."

"Do the trees which you look after shoot up in the twinkling of an
eye?"

"Why, no. Good, stout wood, with strength enough to resist storms and
to cleave to the rocks of these mountainsides, takes a lifetime. I
often warn the peasants against cutting their trees down. It is easy
to destroy, but not to build up, I tell them; and the trees as they
stand are the best preventatives against land-slips."

"Have you always been a forester?" we asked.