We are quite well, thank God!  I have been eating quantities of fine pears, peaches, and melons in your place.  My greatest amusement is to talk by signs to the dumb, which I can do to perfection.  Herr Hasse [the celebrated opera composer] arrived here yesterday, and to-day we are going to pay him a visit.  We only received the book of the Serenata last Thursday. [Footnote:  It was “Ascanio in Alba” that Wolfgang got to compose for Milan; and it was this music which made Hasse exclaim, “This boy will cause us all to be forgotten.”] I have very little to write about.  Do not, I entreat, forget about the one other, where no other can ever be.  You understand me, I know.

35.

Milan, Sept. 13, 1771.

Dear sister,—­

I write only for writing’s sake.  It is indeed very inconvenient, because I have a severe cold.  Say to Fraulein W. von Molk that I rejoice at the thoughts of Salzburg, in the hope that I may again receive the same kind of present for the minuets which was bestowed on me at a similar concert.  She knows all about it.

36.

Milan, Sept. 21, 1771.

I am well, God be praised!  I can’t write much. 1st, I have nothing to say. 2d, my fingers ache from writing.  I often whistle an air, but no one responds.  Only two arias of the Serenata are still wanting, and then it will be finished.  I have no longer any fancy for Salzburg; I am afraid I might go mad too. [He had heard that several persons there had lost their reason.]

37.

Milan, Oct. 5, 1771.

I am in good health, but always sleepy.  Papa has snatched from my pen all that I had to write about, which is, that he has already written everything.  Signora Gabrielli is here, and we are soon going to see her, as we wish to become acquainted with all distinguished singers.

38.

Milan, Oct. 26, 1771.

My work being now completed, I have more time to write, but have nothing to say, as papa has written you all I could have said.  I am well, thank God! but have no news, except that in the lottery the numbers 35, 59, 60, 61, and 62 have turned up prizes, so if we had selected these we should have won; but as we did not put in at all we neither won nor lost, but only laughed at those who did the latter.  The two arias encored in the Serenata were those of Manzuoli, and Girelli, the prima donna, I hope you may be well amused in Triebenbach with shooting, and (weather permitting) with walking.

39.

Milan, Nov. 2, 1771.

Papa says that Herr Kerschbaumer travels with profit and observation, and we can testify that he conducts himself very judiciously; at all events he can give a more satisfactory account of his journey than some of his friends, one of whom said that he could not see Paris properly because the houses there were too high.  To-day Hasse’s opera is to be given; as papa, however, is not going, I can’t go either. [Footnote:  Hasse had also a festal opera to compose, but Leopold Mozart writes, “I am sorry to say that Wolfgang’s Serenata has totally eclipsed Hasse’s opera.”] Fortunately I know all the airs thoroughly by heart, so I can see and hear them in my own thoughts at home.