In the next room my mother asked me to show her what I could play
on the piano, wisely hoping to divert my father's thoughts by the
sound. I played Ueb' immer Treu und Redlichkeit, and my father
said to her, 'Is it possible he has musical talent?'

In the early hours of the next morning my mother came into the
great night nursery, and, standing by the bedside of each of us
in turn, told us, with sobs, that our father was dead, and gave
us each a message with his blessing. To me she said, 'He hoped to
make something of you.'

In the afternoon my schoolmaster, Wetzel, came to take me back to
the country. We walked the whole way to Possendorf, arriving at
nightfall. On the way I asked him many questions about the stars,
of which he gave me my first intelligent idea.

A week later my stepfather's brother arrived from Eisleben for
the funeral. He promised, as far as he was able, to support the
family, which was now once more destitute, and undertook to
provide for my future education.

I took leave of my companions and of the kind-hearted clergyman,
and it was for his funeral that I paid my next visit to
Possendorf a few years later. I did not go to the place again
till long afterwards, when I visited it on an excursion such as I
often made, far into the country, at the time when I was
conducting the orchestra in Dresden. I was much grieved not to
find the old parsonage still there, but in its place a more
pretentious modern structure, which so turned me against the