edle-leedled a little on the
trible, and twoodle-oodle-oodled some on the bass--just foolin' and
boxin' the thing's jaws for bein' in his way. And I says to a man
settin' next to me, s'I, 'What sort of fool playin' is that?' And he
says, 'Heish!' But presently his hands commenced chasin' one 'nother
up and down the keys, like a passel of rats scamperin' through a
garret very swift. Parts of it was sweet, though, and reminded me of a
sugar squirrel turnin' the wheel of a candy cage. 'Now,' I says to my
neighbor, 'he's showing' off. He thinks he's a-doin' of it; but he
ain't got no idee, no plan of nuthin'. If he'd play me up a tune of
some kind or other, I'd'--

"But my neighbor says, 'Heish!' very impatient.

"I was just about to git up and go home, bein' tired of that
foolishness, when I heard a little bird wakin' up away off in the
woods, and callin' sleepy-like to his mate, and I looked up and I see
that Ruben was beginnin' to take interest in his business, and I set
down agin. It was the peep of day. The light come faint from the east,
the breeze blowed gentle and fresh, some more birds waked up in the
orchard, then some more in the trees near the house, and all begun
singin' together. People begun to stir, and the gal opened the
shutters. Just then the first beam of the sun fell upon the blossoms;
a leetle more and it techt the roses on the bushes, and the next thing
it was broad day; the sun fairly blazed; the birds sang like they'd
split their little throats; all the leaves was movin', and flashin'
diamonds of dew, and the whole wide world was bright and happy as a
king. Seemed to me like there was a good breakfast in every house in
the land, and not a sick child or woman anywhere. It was a fine
mornin'.

"And I says to my neighbor, 'that's music, that is.'

"But he glared at me like he'd like to cut my throat.

"Presently the wind turned; it begun to thicken up, and a kind of gray
mist come over things; I got low-spirited d'rectly. Then a silver rain
began to fall; I could see the drops touch the ground; some flashed
up like long pearl ear-rings; and the rest rolled away like round
rubies. It was pretty, but melancholy. Then the pearls gathered
themselves into long strands and necklaces, and then they melted into
thin silver streams running between golden gravels, and then the
streams joined each other at the bottom of the hill, and made a brook
that flowed silent except that you could kinder see the music