_come_ down he would _fork_ us down--he was
evidently thinking of hay-time. We two, perched on the haystack, did not
take the words at all with a kindly meaning. However, I told Jack in an
under-tone to pack up our clothes and get away, suggesting that I would
spring down and tackle the old man. Jack obeyed and got away, and I
seized the farmer and held him tightly in a position by no means
agreeable to him. He soon promised that if I left loose he would let me
go away. I released him and doubled after Jack, finally landing at Cross
Lane Ends, where Jack was waiting for me. We put on our usual garments
and departed each on his own way. During the day I went to a neighbour's
house. I was rather startled on seeing the old farmer there; but
exceeding glad was I when he failed to recognise me. He was telling the
family about two "young scoundrels," and how one had attacked him in his
own barn early that morning; he little thought that a little "scoundrel"
in that house was the "attacker" he wished to get hold of. Little Willie
Wright could not help but smile interestingly at the old man's vivid
description of the incident. That incident, I may say in passing, served
to mark the termination of my career as a circus hand.

TRYING THE FIDDLE

Instrumental music next turned my head, or, more definitely--a violin. I
bought a fiddle on my own account. Of course my father saw the
instrument; if I could keep it out of his sight I could not very well
keep it out of his hearing. Then, besides, little boys should not be
deceptive. He says: "What are you going to do with that?" I says: "I'm
going to learn to play it." Then he asked me where I had bought it, and I
told him like a dutiful son--"Tom Carrodus's in Church Green." He
summoned my mother and asked: "Mally, what dos'ta think o' this lot?"
She--good woman--said it was only another antic of her boy's, and "let
him have his own way." But my father, on the contrary, got rather nasty
about the matter, remarking that if I didn't take the thing away he would
put it into the fire. He said he was sure it would only turn out a public
house "touch," and informed me that it was only one in a thousand who
ever got to be anything worth listening to. He endeavoured to impress
upon me what a nuisance the old fiddler was on the Fair Day; and
"concluded a vigorous speech" by again reminding me that if I didn't take
the fiddle out of his _sight_ he would burn it. He did give me the chance