312 A FIRST EXPERIENCE 



ranch or hovel. There were six or seven kept at my 

 home, so that each of us children could have one to 

 play with or play on if he could learn how. No other 

 instrument was ever heard, except a trumpet, when by 

 chance a troop of soldiers in their scarlet uniforms 

 came our way, or the sound of a horn blown by the 

 driver of a diligence. The great music first came to 

 me when I was taken on one of our annual visits to 

 Buenos Ayres city. There I saw troops reviewed in 

 the chief plaza and heard the military bands. Then 

 I discovered the cathedral and its orchestral music, 

 for there was no organ. Coming into this great build- 

 ing on a great saint's day, I heard for the first time 

 the wonderful sounds. They came from above, and 

 entranced and drawn by such sounds, although I 

 was as shy as any little wild animal, I crept up three 

 or four flights of broad stairs to find myself at length 

 in the gallery itself, where a dozen or fourteen men 

 were performing on "instruments of unknown forms." 

 There I remained during the whole performance, 

 listening, absorbed, entranced, lifted out of myself, 

 trembling with an excess of delight such as I had 

 never before experienced. For that joy I had to pay 

 pretty dearly, since the music haunted me after- 

 wards day and night for weeks, until it became a 

 torment, at first a delicious pain, but eventually 

 almost pure pain. 



This troubled me a great deal; for even after the 

 pain had gone I continued to remember and think 

 about it; and as others I spoke to on the subject 

 appeared not to have suffered in the same way I 



