specially when the bushes on the banks moved as the music went along
down the valley. I could smell the flowers in the meadows. But the sun
didn't shine, nor the birds sing; it was a foggy day, but not cold.
Then the sun went down, it got dark, the wind moaned and wept like a
lost child for its dead mother, and I could a-got up then and there
and preached a better sermon than any I ever listened to. There wasn't
a thing in the world left to live for, not a blame thing, and yet I
didn't want the music to stop one bit. It was happier to be miserable
than to be happy without being miserable. I couldn't understand
it. . . . . . . Then, all of a sudden, old Ruben changed his tune. He
ripped and he rar'd, he tipped and he tar'd, he pranced and he charged
like the grand entry at a circus. 'Peared to me like all the gas in
the house was turned on at once, things got so bright, and I hilt up
my head, ready to look any man in the face, and not afeared of
nothin'. It was a circus, and a brass band, and a big ball, all goin'
on at the same time. He lit into them keys like a thousand of brick,
he gave 'em no rest, day nor night; he set every living joint in me
agoin', and not bein' able to stand it no longer, I jumpt spang onto
my seat, and jest hollered:

"'_Go it, my Rube!_'

"Every blamed man, woman, and child in the house riz on me, and
shouted 'Put him out! Put him out!'

"With that some several p'licemen run up, and I had to simmer down.
But I would a fit any fool that laid hands on me, for I was bound to
hear Ruby out or die.

"He had changed his tune agin. He hopt-light ladies and tip-toed fine
from eend to eend of the key-board. He played soft, and low, and
solemn. I heard the church bells over the hills. The candles in heaven
was lit, one by one. I saw the stars rise. The great organ of eternity
began to play from the world's end to the world's end, and all the
angels went to prayers. Then the music changed to water, full of
feeling that couldn't be thought, and began to drop--drip, drop, drip,
drop--clear and sweet, like tears of joy fallin' into a lake of glory.

"He stopt a minute or two, to fetch breath. Then he got mad. He run
his fingers through his hair, he shoved up his sleeves, he opened
his coat-tails a leetle further, he drug up his stool, he leaned
over, and, sir, he just went for that old pianner. He slapt her
face, he boxed her jaws, he pulled her nose, he pinched her ears,
and he scratched her cheeks