Then Mr. Laurie will find you a place somewhere , and in a few years we will all come to hear you play in public . '' With much congenial work , encouragement , and hope , Nat found life getting easier and happier every day , and made such progress in his music lessons that his teacher forgave his slowness in some other things , knowing very well that where the heart is the mind works best . The only punishment the boy ever needed for neglect of more important lessons was to hang up the fiddle and the bow for a day . The fear of losing his bosom friend entirely made him go at his books with a will ; and having proved that he could master the lessons , what was the use of saying `` I ca n't ? '' Daisy had a great love of music , and a great reverence for any one who could make it , and she was often found sitting on the stairs outside Nat 's door while he was practising . This pleased him very much , and he played his best for that one quiet little listener ; for she never would come in , but preferred to sit sewing her gay patchwork , or tending one of her many dolls , with an expression of dreamy pleasure on her face that made Aunt Jo say , with tears in her eyes : `` So like my Beth , '' and go softly by , lest even her familiar presence mar the child 's sweet satisfaction . Nat was very fond of Mrs. Bhaer , but found something even more attractive in the good professor , who took fatherly care of the shy feeble boy , who had barely escaped with his life from the rough sea on which his little boat had been tossing rudderless for twelve years . Some good angel must have been watching over him , for , though his body had suffered , his soul seemed to have taken little harm , and came ashore as innocent as a shipwrecked baby . Perhaps his love of music kept it sweet in spite of the discord all about him ; Mr. Laurie said so , and he ought to know . However that might be , Father Bhaer took pleasure in fostering poor Nat 's virtues , and in curing his faults , finding his new pupil as docile and affectionate as a girl . He often called Nat his `` daughter '' when speaking of him to Mrs. Jo , and she used to laugh at his fancy , for Madame liked manly boys , and thought Nat amiable but weak , though you never would have guessed it , for she petted him as she did Daisy , and he thought her a very delightful woman . One fault of Nat 's gave the Bhaers much anxiety , although they saw how it had been strengthened by fear and ignorance . I regret to say that Nat sometimes told lies . Not very black ones , seldom getting deeper than gray , and often the mildest of white fibs ; but that did not matter , a lie is a lie , and though we all tell many polite untruths in this queer world of ours , it is not right , and everybody knows it . `` You can not be too careful ; watch your tongue , and eyes , and hands , for it is easy to tell , and look , and act untruth , '' said Mr. Bhaer , in one of the talks he had with Nat about his chief temptation . `` I know it , and I do n't mean to , but it 's so much easier to get along if you ai n't very fussy about being exactly true . I used to tell 'em because I was afraid of father and Nicolo , and now I do sometimes because the boys laugh at me . I know it 's bad , but I forget , '' and Nat looked much depressed by his sins . `` When I was a little lad I used to tell lies ! Ach !
what XXXXX they were , and my old grandmother cured me of it how , do you think ?
Beth Bhaer Bhaers Daisy Madame Nat Nicolo day fibs right