Before I go more deeply into the course of this matter, which caused so much heavy heartache for me at that time, I will turn, to catch some breath, back to an earlier experience, that provided me some beneficial refreshment then.

Already before 1830 my economic situation had become more comfortable. Instruction in music, the journal, many editions of writings (The Artof Singing, On Painting in Music, participation in Caecilia etc.) and musical works (Chorale- and Organ Book, Lieder, Choruses etc.) had prepared me for a larger journey. Alone, on foot, carefree and merry, as those who go on foot are, I wandered through the comfortable hills and dells of Thuringia toward the south. In a village south of Coburg I was to take a guide, as I had been advised, who would take me on footpaths through the wood to the most attractive point, the Kloster Banz. I entered the village in the early morning. It was Sunday, and a secret stillness, like the peace of God, lay over the sunny meadow; from near and far one could hear church bells ringing. But all the doors were closed, with not a soul to be seen; it was the hour of the early service. Not without embarrassment, I looked around; I saw the head of a blond boy, which leaned out of the window of a little house, and as soon as I saw him, drew back as fast as lightning. This was a wink for me; I went into the entryway, knocked on the door of the room, and went in, since I had heard nothing. No one but a quiet old man was in the room, but was not working with farm or housework, but rather with metalwork for pipes. Upon my question, looking for a guide, he answered unfavorably that I would have to look elsewhere. In the meantime I had noticed a piano next to the window. With the words, ah, there's an instrument, I went up and tried it, not without pleasure with respect to how it played and its sound. The old man had walked up, nodded his head with a smile, and said: I built that for my Heinrich, the schoolmaster let me have the soundboard! I looked with amazement at the old man, who in addition to his hammering on pipes had made a piano correctly.