he done, because it
ain't held Christian to set on a man when he's down. But what he done
was to get that Dutch band with five pieces that played in front of our
house every morning--they come in first. He stations them at the side of
the road right square in front of Old Man Wisner's house, and he tells
them to play everything they knew and then play it all over again, and
keep on playing. We was setting eating dinner, enjoying their music as
much as we could, when the leader of the band comes in; and says he:

"_Mein Herr, wir sind schon ausgeblasen._"

"Is that so?" says Old Man Wright. "Well, have a drink, and go out and
begin over again."

About now come the rest of the bands, six or eight or so, and back of
them was the merry villagers. They filled up the whole street in front
of our steps and in front of the Wisners, and up and down the row; and
some of 'em stepped on Bonnie Bell's new tulip beds in the yard south of
us.

"Unto them that hath is gave," says Old Man Wright, looking peaceful.
"Like enough, most all the bands in this part of town'll be here before
long. Pore old Dave Wisner, he don't seem to have no band; so I'll fix
him up--he don't seem cheerful, with his blinds down thataway. Round up
our bands, Curly," says he, "and line some of 'em up in front of his
house on the other side of the street. Get some of 'em and stand 'em up
on our side of his fence. Make a line of 'em back to the boathouse. Tell
'em to play--I ain't particular what they play. They don't even need to
play the same piece unless they want to; but keep 'em busy--play
everything they have and then repeat softly, and if they get tired feed
'em and give 'em something to drink. And tell Johnson, the precinct
captain, when he comes about eight o'clock, to come on in with his
friends, the whole gang--the door is open and there's no strings on it,
and no strings on the new alderman."

Old Man Wisner must have been enjoying his life that evening while we
was celebrating our being alderman. Bonnie Bell she didn't approve of
this none, but she knowed that when her pa was in one sort of mood she'd
better leave him alone and let him have his way--there wasn't no
stopping him.

After a while Johnson, the precinct captain that had had this election
in charge, he come in to have a talk with the new alderman, him and a
lot more. There was a good many Swedes up in his ward, and plenty of
these folks was blue-eyed and had yellow hair, and some