under the blue heaven, the boy took his instrument and began to sing in
his strong, clear tones,--

"Little lambkins, come down."

Now it happened that there were three students seated up on the top of
the post-wagon: they were off on a vacation trip, and very merry.

So when Rico carolled forth Stineli's song in his gayest manner, they
all burst out laughing and shouted, "Stop, singer, stop, and begin over
again; we want to sing with you."

Rico obeyed, and the jolly students joined in with all their might,--

"And the lambkins, and the lambkins,"--

and laughed so extravagantly all the time that they drowned the sound of
Rico's fiddle completely. And then one of them would take up the words
and sing alone,--

"And if they forgot it,
It hurt not a bit."

And then the others joined in, and sang as loudly as possible,--

"And the lambkins, and the lambkins."

And so they went on for a long time. If Rico paused a little, they
shouted, "Go on, fiddler; don't stop yet," and threw little pieces of
money to him over and over again, until he had quite a heap in his cap.