"
Naturally the good woman was very much surprised, and could not
refrain from exclaiming repeatedly, "What will Rico do with it? What
will Rico say to this?" Presently she noticed, however, that the
schoolmaster seemed a little restless, as if he were in a hurry to
have the thing done.
So she left him, and hastened as quickly as possible across the fields
with the gift under her arm; for she was also impatient to know how Rico
would take this rare piece of good fortune.
He was standing in the doorway of his cottage. At a motion from the
grandmother, he ran towards her.
"Here, Rico," she said, and handed him the violin. "The schoolmaster
sends this to you: it is yours."
The boy stood as if he were in a dream, but it was true. The grandmother
was really standing there, holding the fiddle out to him.
Trembling with pleasure and excitement, he took his present at last, put
it on his arm, and gazed at it in a silly sort of way, as if he thought
it might vanish presently, as quickly as it had come, if he did not keep
his eyes on it.
"You must be very careful of it," said the old woman, delivering her
message faithfully. She was much inclined to laugh, however; for it did
not seem to her that the warning was at all necessary. "And, Rico, think
about the teacher, and do not forget what he has done for you: he is
very ill.
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