Aunt Rachel / A Rustic Sentimental Comedy

e were large-sized plaster casts-Venus, Minerva, Mercury, a goat-hoofed Pan with his pipes, a Silence with a finger at her lips. They were all sylvan green and crumbled with exposure to the

d apple-tree whose branches were thick with green fruit, and the quartette party sat about th

ime with one foot upon the grass. The girl, with twined fingers, leaned both palms on the trunk of the apple-tree, and reposed a clear-colored cheek on her rounded arm, looking downward with a listening air. The youngest player never glanced at the sheets which the old man so assiduously turned for him, but looked st

looked at each other like men who were sati

re Bee-thoven. Rewben, the hallygro's a twister, I can tell thee. Thee hadst better grease thy elbow afore we start o

. "Theer's a warmish bit afore us, and

lms turned to the ground. An inward-looking smile, called up by

over. I could shut my eyes an' think as I was five-and-twenty 'ear

Our 'Saiah's got it drove into him somehow, as he's the o

the one as carries Natur's license t' offe

unger man, "to say I have my uncle's ha

ner player than ever I was. If I'd played as well as thee I might hav

hy, I mek bold to tell you, Mr. Gold, as theer is not a hammer-chewer on the fiddle, not

y, the idea that he spoke but seldom and was something of a recluse. "There's a deal in what you say, Mr. Fuller, but the fiddle is not a thing as can be played

e you!" Sennach

an a woman. It wants the whole of a man. If Reuben was to settle down to it

b. "D'ye think as life was gi'en to us

power gi'en 'em by Nature to be fiddlers; that is to say, as has all the qualities to be masters of the instryment. It is so ordered as the best of qualities m

likes it, is skittles. So is marvils, or kite-flyin', or kiss-i'-the-ring. But to talk of a man sittin' on his hinder end, and draggin' rosined hosshair acr

come along with the beer. And when we've had a drink, lads, well have a cut at the hallygro. It's marke

s, and, having set the tray and jug upon the grass, to

sin, 'Saiah?" as

took it out of the case last night, and was tha

Sennacherib, "I ni

o-player, "here's a bit. You

a dogged precision which made them agreeable enough to listen to, but droll to look at. Ruth, with her chin upon her dimpled arm, watched Reuben as he played. He had tossed back his chestnut mane of hair rather proudly as he tucked his violin beneath his chin, and had looked round on his three seniors with the air of a master as he held his bow poised in readiness to descend upon the strings. His short upper lip and full lower lip came together firmly, his brows straightened,

bravo! Capital,

t the placid old man behind Reuben's chair, "d'ye think as that could be beat if we spent fort

milder self-gratulation, as he disposed his 'cello between his kn

beat? A civil answer to a civil question is no more than a

ll played, Mr. Eld,"

as it could be beat. D'ye think Paganyni cou

f," returned Sennacherib. "Hast been at it all

Gold, as you come to give up the music. Theer's them as is entitled to speak, and has l

ish church the finest buildin' i' the king-dom. But they woul

s thinks they have a right

o Reuben," the old man allowed, "though I never

plays like Reuben. Give Mr. Gold a chair, Ruth. I should like to h

"I was up in London rather better than six

asked

ating himself in the chair the girl had brou

to follow yo

clear my mean-in'. If you had been drinkin' a wonderful fine glass of port or

-player, "but they niver sp'iled my

aps it was. I am not careful to defend it, gentlemen, and it may happen that I might not if I tried. But that was how I came to give up the fiddle. He was a wonder of the world, was Paganin

" said Isaiah. "Band an' chorus of a hundred. It was when th

Haydn now, lads," sai

I promised to get back early and give them a tune or two." He arose, and, taking his violin-case from the grass, wiped it carefully all over with his pocket-

fierily as he spoke, but no on

ur or two," said her father. "Re

ed a little deeper yet, and knelt over his violin-case on the grass, where he swaddled the ins

ttle thought upon. You get a couple o' strong men one o' these days, and make 'em pull at a set of strings, and see if they'll get them up to concert pitch! I doubt if they'd do it, lad, or anything like. And there's all that strain on a frail shell like that. I've ached to thin

er is about everythin' else her does. Dost remember what the vicar said last Sunday was a wick? It 'ud be a crime, he said, to think as the Lord made the things as is lower in

d?" said Gold, turning his ascetic fa

lar liking to. He'll niver ask to have his cabbage twice b'iled, nor plain wo

and Gold there was very much the sort of contrast

e mastership in music is gi'en in again the fiddle in favor o' the hurdy-gurdy, I'll begin to think as you and me is better specimens of natur's handiwork than this here gracious bit o' sweetness as is coming towards

shoulders rounded with an habitual stoop and his eyes upon the ground. Ruth and Reuben followed, and

" said Isaiah, passing the back of his hand across hi

atur' in a crab-apple," said Senna

at with the palms of both hands and agitated it gently. "It beats me," he s

laid by the music. I wonder at Gold settlin' up t

asked Isaiah, besto

nigh on forty-six-an'-thirty he was at the lowest. Even when he seemed to ha' made up what mind he'd got he'd goo and fiddle to the wench instead o' courtin' her like a Christian, or sometimes the wench 'ud mek a visit to his mother, and then he'd fiddle to her at hum. He made eyes at her for all the parish to see, and the young woman waited most tynacious. But when her h

er of a man who finds an explanation for a

somebody's polished his glasses. Rachel Blythe was the wench's name. Her was a little sli

iah, "thee lookest like a st

nt, and he was staring from one of his guest

to be talkin' about her constant. Her had offers by the baker's dozen, so it seemed, but her could never be brought to marry. Fanny Jane was a woman as was gi'en a good deal up to sentiment, and h

d, howsever, as they got to be hintimate enough to quarrel. But as for Paganyni, that's

e for both on 'em. Her's back again. Made us a visit yesterday. Her

chip! The littlest, wizen-edest, tiniest little old woman as ever I set eyes on. Dear me! dear me! To think as six-an'-twenty

e one for another. Here's a bit of a treeho, lads, as I bought in Brummagem the day afore yesterday. It's by that ne