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with esteem and gratification, 'what do you think! Dad's going to buy me a piano. Ain't it grand? I never dreamed I'd ever have one." "'It's sure joyful,' says I. 'I always admired the agreeable uproar of a piano. It'll be lots of company for you. That's mighty good of Uncle Cal to do that.' "'I'm all undecided,' says Marilla, 'between a piano and an organ. A parlour organ is nice.' "'Either of 'em,' says I, 'is first-class for mitigating the lack of noise around a sheep-ranch. For my part,' I says, 'I shouldn't like anything better than to ride home of an evening and listen to a few waltzes and jigs, with somebody about your size sitting on the piano-stool and rounding up the notes.' "'Oh, hush about that,' says Marilla, 'and go on in the house. Dad hasn't rode out to-day. He's not feeling well.' "Old Cal was inside, lying on a cot. He had a pretty bad cold and cough. I stayed to supper. "'Going to get Marilla a piano, I hear,' says I to him. "'Why, yes, something of the kind, Rush,' says he. 'She's been hankering for music for a long spell; and I allow to fix her up with something in that line right away. The sheep sheared six pounds all round this fall; and I'm going to get Marilla an instrument if it takes the price of the whole clip to do it.' "'_Star wayno_ [92],' says I. 'The little girl deserves it.' [FOOTNOTE 92: star wayno--probably a corruption of "esta bueno" ("that's good)] "'I'm going to San Antone on the last load of wool,' says Uncle Cal, 'and select an instrument for her myself.' "'Wouldn't it be better,' I suggests, 'to take Marilla along and let her pick out one that she likes?' "I might have known that would set Uncle Cal going. Of course, a man like him, that knew everything about everything, would look at that as a reflection on his attainments. "'No, sir, it wouldn't,' says he, pulling at his white whiskers. 'There ain't a better judge of musical instruments in the whole world than what I am. I had an uncle,' says he, 'that was a partner in a piano-factory, and I've seen thousands of 'em put together. I know all about musical instruments from a pipe-organ to a corn-stalk fiddle. There ain't a man lives, sir, that can tell me any news about any instrument that has to be pounded, blowed, scraped, grinded, picked, or wound with a key.' "'You get me what you like, dad,' says Marilla, who couldn't keep her feet on the floor from joy. 'Of course y
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