and study the character and needs of his adopted country, that he might be well informed.  During the period of insecurity in political affairs, the tobacco factory had to be closed and Nicholas Chopin looked for other activity.  A few years later we find him in the household of Countess Skarbek, as a tutor to her son, Frederic.  Here he met his bride, Justina de Krzyzanowska, a young lady of noble but poor family, whom he married in 1806.  She became the mother of his four children, three girls and a boy.

The boy Frederic Chopin, was born on March 1, 1809, in the little village of Zelazowa Wola, belonging to the Countess Skarbek, about twenty-eight miles from Warsaw.  It is probable the family did not remain here long, for the young husband was on the lookout for more profitable employment.  He was successful, for on October 1, 1810, he was appointed Professor of French in the newly founded Lyceum in Warsaw.  He also soon organized a boarding school for boys in his own home, which was patronized by the best Polish families of the country.

Surrounded by refined, cultivated people, in an atmosphere at once moral and intellectual, little Frederic passed a fortunate childhood.  He soon manifested such fondness for music, especially for the piano, that his parents allowed him to have lessons, his teacher being Adalbert Zywny, the best-known master of the city.  It is related that Zywny only taught his little pupil first principles, for the child’s progress was so extraordinary that before long he had mastered all his teacher could impart, and at twelve he was left to shape his own musical destiny.

He early gave proofs of his talents.  Before he was eight years old he played at a large evening company, with such surprising cleverness that it was predicted he would become another Mozart.  The next year he was invited to take part in a large concert given under distinguished patronage.  The boy was a simple, modest child, and played the piano as the bird sings, with unconscious art.  When he returned home after this concert, his mother asked:  “What did the people like best?” and he answered naively:  “Oh, mama, every one was looking at my collar.”

After this, little Frederic became more than ever the pet of the aristocracy of Warsaw; his charming manners, his unspoiled nature, his musical gifts made him welcome in princely homes.  He had also begun to compose; indeed these efforts started soon after he began piano lessons, and before he could handle a pen.  His teacher had to write down what the little composer played.  Among those early pieces were mazurkas, polonaises, valses and the like.  At the age of ten he dedicated a march to Grand Duke Constantine, who had it scored for band and played on parade.  He started lessons in composition with Joseph Eisner, a celebrated teacher, who became a life-long adviser and friend.