"You see my master brings me all sorts of boys, and I have to cram music into them in the briefest period possible.

Of course the child revolts, and I thrash him; but do not think he cares for this; the young imps thrive on blows.

The only way that I can touch them is through their stomachs.

I stop a quarter, a half, and sometimes the whole of their dinner.

That fetches them, and you have no idea how a little starvation brings them on in music." Daddy Tantaine felt a cold shiver creep over him as he listened to this frank exposition of the professor's mode of action.
"You can now understand," remarked the professor, "how some airs become popular in Paris.