The honor was great, for a boy of eleven and a half.  To conduct the service, and receive the respect and deference due the position, quite overwhelmed the lad.  Honors of this kind were very pleasant, but, alas, there was no money attached to the position, and this was what the straitened family needed most sorely.  The responsibilities of the position and the confidence of Neefe spurred Ludwig on to a passion of work which nothing could check.  He began to compose; three sonatas for the pianoforte were written about this time.  Before completing his thirteenth year, Ludwig obtained his first official appointment from the Elector; he became what is called cembalist in the orchestra, which meant that he had to play the piano in the orchestra, and conduct the band at rehearsals.  With this appointment there was no salary attached either, and it was not until a year later when he was made second organist to the Court, under the new Elector, Max Franz, that he began to receive a small salary, equal to about sixty-five dollars a year.  We have seen that the straits of the family had not prevented Ludwig from pursuing his musical studies with great ardor.  With his present attainments and his ambition for higher achievements, he longed to leave the little town of Bonn, and see something of the great world.  Vienna was the center of the musical life of Germany; the boy dreamed of this magical city by day as he went about his routine of work, and by night as he lay on his poor narrow cot.  Like Haydn, Vienna was the goal of his ambition.  When a kind friend, knowing his great longing, came forward with an offer to pay the expenses of the journey, the lad knew his dream was to become a reality.  In Vienna he would see the first composers of the day; best of all he would see and meet the divine Mozart, the greatest of them all.

Ludwig, now seventeen, set out for the city of his dreams with the brightest anticipations.  On his arrival in Vienna he went at once to Mozart’s house.  He was received most kindly and asked to play, but Mozart seemed preoccupied and paid but little attention.  Ludwig, seeing this stopped playing and asked for a theme on which to improvise.  Mozart gave a simple theme, and Beethoven, taking the slender thread, worked it up with so much feeling and power, that Mozart, who was now all attention and astonishment, stepped into the next room, where some friends were waiting for him, and said, “Pay attention to this young man; he will make a noise in the world some day.”

Shortly after his return home he was saddened by the loss of his good, kind, patient mother, and a few months later his little sister Margaretha passed away.  No doubt these sorrows were expressed in some of his most beautiful compositions.  But brighter days followed the dark ones.  He became acquainted with the Breuning family, a widow lady and four children, three boys and a girl, all young people.  The youngest boy and the girl became his pupils, and all