Scan 17
Camilla: a tale of a violin, being the artist life of Camilla Urso, 1874
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1open she went with her father to the church of the Holy Cross.
3The church was an old one and to reach the organ loft high up over the great portal they had to climb a steep and winding stair in the great tower. The stairs were worn deep with footsteps so that it was hard climbing for the little one. Still, she always went with her father and mother. Did he not play the tall organ with its great white pipes, and did her mother not sing? She had a good seat where she could look up at the black arches springing so high overhead, or down on the people who seemed so small in the church far below.
5When there was no theatre or church she played about her mother's room or under the trees in the public gardens, very much in the fashion of other French girls.
7Playing in an orchestra is not the road to wealth. The pay was very small, and even with the organ salary and the music lessons things did not prosper very happily and the little Camilla had to content herself with such juvenile joys as could be procured without very much money. This, happily, did not make much difference. There was enough to eat and pretty good things to wear and no end of music. This last seemed to quite satisfy her. The orchestra, the organ and the choir afforded her perpetual amusement, and her life was as happy as that of the most favored child in the town.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.