"Whether you have had any breakfast or not," he rejoined firmly.
The children trooped down the stairs, leaving their chief to gather up the toys and place them carefully upon the table.
He was about to leave the room when, for the first time, he discovered that he was not alone.
"Father!" he exclaimed, bounding gladly to the old man's side, and laying one hand affectionately upon his shoulder. "Did you hear us play? Didn't we do well? If only we had a fiddle we could make much better music. Oh, father, it is such fun--why--what's the matter, father? I sharpened your pens and aired your dressing-gown."
The boy's hilarious comments ceased as he became aware of his father's darkened expression, and he hastened to allay the doubts that he supposed to be the cause of this unlooked-for displeasure.
"I know, Georg, that you sharpened the pens, and I believe you when you tell me that you aired the dressing-gown, but I shall give you a new duty to-day. See that you perform it promptly!"
Georg listened in wonder, for never before had his father addressed him with such hardness of manner, and instinctively the boy drew a pace backward.
"I want you to take those musical toys and throw them into the pond, or give them to some one who never comes into this house."
"Throw them away--my trumpet, my fife, my--"
Breathless with consternation the boy rushed to the table and gathered his treasures protectingly in his arms.
"These--I must--keep," he asserted chokingly, eying his father from the breastworks of drum and bell.
For answer Mr. Händel pointed to the door, and Georg, reading naught but doom in that significant gesture, dropped his toys with a crash and clasped his father's arm beseechingly.
"Father, don't make me throw them in the pond! Tell me why it is wrong for me to have them; please, father, tell me!"
The old gentleman's face expressed both resolution and kindness.
"Listen, Georg. When I gave you those toys at Christmas time, I expected you to amuse yourself with them as other children do, in turn with balls, kites, and sleds. But this you have failed to do, and every play-hour since that time you have given to these musical toys. Now, Georg, I mean to give you a thorough education, so that when you are a man you may become a jurist, capable of following a respectable career and earning a snug fortune. Ever since you were born I have planned and saved for this purpose, and I cannot have my arrangements upset by these silly mouth organs. Tut, tut!" as the boy endeavored to speak, "no words, my son, over this matter! If I allow you to keep these things and play with them, day in and day out, as you have been doing, you will grow into a _musician_, and then where will my jurist be? No, no, it is not to be thought of. When I came in to-day, you were so deep in the Duke's March that you did not know that I was near. No, boy, you cannot have them any longer. I would have taken them away before, had I realized that you were so set upon them."