This is a picture of the house in Zwickau, Germany, where Robert Schumann was born. [Illustration: No. 4 SCHUMANN'S BIRTHPLACE.] Schumann was a strong healthy youth who had many friends and loved life. [Illustration: No. 5 SCHUMANN AS A YOUTH.] What do you think the Father and Mother of Robert Schumann wanted him to be when he was grown up? A lawyer! Robert was the youngest of five children, full of fun and up to all kinds of games. He went to school and became especially fond of reading plays. He also loved to write little plays and to act them out on the stage that his Father had built for him in his room. So he and his companions could give their plays in their own theatre. All the while Robert was taking piano lessons. Just before he entered the High School he heard a pianist who played so beautifully that he made up his mind that he would become a musician. The pianist whose playing gave him this thought is one whose name you will know better and better as you get older. [Illustration: No. 6 IGNACE MOSCHELES.] There was lots of music making in the Schumann home, for Robert and all his companions played and sang. And besides that, he composed music for them. It must have been a pleasant picture to see all these German boys coming together to make music. If we could gather together some American boys who were alive at that same time, here are some we could have found: Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote for children, _Tanglewood Tales_ and the _Wonder Book_. [Illustration: No. 7 HAWTHORNE.] Then there was Longfellow, who was born in Portland, Maine. How many of his poems do you know besides _Hiawatha_? [Illustration: No. 8 LONGFELLOW.] And then we must not forget Whittier, who wrote many lovely poems. One was about a little girl who spelled the word that her companion missed in school and so she went above him in the class. [Illustration: No. 9 WHITTIER.] And still there was another little boy only a year older than Robert Schumann. He was born in a cabin. [Illustration: No. 10 LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE.] This boy's name, as you can guess, was Abraham Lincoln. [Illustration: No. 11 ABRAHAM LINCOLN.] So when you think of Robert Schumann, let us also think of Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, and Lincoln. They were all doing their best, even as boys, to be useful. Well, after all, Robert Schumann did not become a lawyer. He studied music very hard. His teacher was Frederick Wieck. His teacher's daughter, Clara Wieck, played the piano very beautifully.