Page:Notes of a Pianist.djvu/45

Rh feeling fatigued, she retired into her chamber, leaving her child alone in the room, when, frightened by the sound of the piano, she quickly got up, as the Indians, to whom nearly the whole place belonged, were never backward in committing depredations. The first thought of the young wife was, that one of them had obtained an entrance into the house, and, attracted by the sight of the unknown instrument, had endeavoured to learn for himself the nature of the thing; when, carefully opening the door, she saw the child standing on a stool with a preoccupied air, with his little hands on the piano, endeavouring to find the keys of the notes he ought to strike. His mother, utterly astonished, did not speak to him, but watched what he was doing, when, to her extreme surprise, the child reproduced the air which she had sung a quarter of an hour before. The cry of pride given by the young mother attracted the negro servants, and, to the great terror of many of them, they were listeners to the first musical essays of one of the greatest pianists that ever were born. The eldest of the negroes shook their heads and whispered the word "zombi," which in the negro tongue signifies devil; the younger ones looked on admiringly, and taking, with respect, the little hands of the child into their own, kissed them. At Mr. Gottschalk's return the circumstance was related to him, and to the great chagrin of his wife he instantly decided that instead of remaining he would endeavour to dispose of the property and return to the city, for the purpose of securing to the child a perfect musical education.

Like an opening flower the nature of the child developed itself little by little. His heart was so tender that he could not bear to see any one around him suftering. One day, when his parents had taken him with them to pay a visit to a lady some distance from home, the child was painfully struck at the sight of a negress who had the "carcan" (a species of round wooden instrument, fastened by a padlock placed around the neck of negroes as a punishment, which prevents them from lying down—kept on sometimes for two or three months) around her neck. As in the city they were less cruel to their slaves than in the country where there were no magistrates to enforce the laws, Moreau,