"
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.
Within the coach the passengers opened the windows, and stuck their
heads out to listen to the merry singing.
Rico started off afresh, and the students also. They divided the song
into solos and chorus; and the solo sang very solemnly,--
"And one lake, like another, From water is made."
And then again,--
"And because they forgot it,
It hurt not a bit."
And the chorus took it up with,--
"And the lambkins, and the lambkins."
Then they laughed so that they were almost dead, and were forced to be
still for very fatigue and want of breath.
Presently the driver stopped, for it was time for the horses to rest,
and also dinner-time. While the good man helped Rico down, he held the
little fellow's cap firmly for him, for it had a lot of money in it, and
the boy was busy enough with holding his fiddle carefully.
Pages:
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63