el. Orpheus was no fable: the animals obeyed this new
enchantment; and when Dick, on recovering from his terror, was unable
to understand what was going on around him, he saw himself surrounded
by an audience a hundred fold more attentive to the charms of music
than any which had hitherto admired his execution. This was so true
that so soon as his bow ceased moving, the coyotes dashed forward to
renew the battle.

Dick now knew what his means of preservation were. He must play the
fiddle till some help arrived. Ere long, yielding to the fascination
of the art, the musician completely forgot the danger he incurred.
Indulging all the fancies of his imagination, he gave his four-footed
audience a concert in which he surpassed himself. Never had he played
with more taste, soul, and expression. Hence he forgot, in the
intoxication of his triumph, the wedding and the brilliant company,
the whiskey-punch and supper smoking hot on the board, that awaited
him no great distance off.

But alas! every medal has its reverse in this world, and all days of
pleasure have their to-morrow of woe. As the night advanced, the old
negro felt the cold pierce his stiffened limbs. In vain did he try to
rest; if the bow left the fiddle strings, the coyotes rushed against
the walls of the cabin; if, on the contrary, he continued to wander
along the paths of harmony, these _dilettanti_ of a novel sort
squatted down on their hams, with their tails stretched out on the
snow, ears pricked up, tongues hanging from their half-opened jaws,
and they followed, with a regular movement of the head and body, all
the notes produced by old Dick's fiddle.

While this fantastic scene, illumined by the moonbeams, was taking
place in the clearing, the negroes, who were awaiting their comrade to
begin the fun, were growing sadly impatient, and did not know what to
think of the delay of their musician, who was usually most punctual.
At last six of them, tired of waiting, left the house to make a voyage
of discovery; and on reaching the cabin, on the top of which Dick was
perched, they noticed some thirty coyotes in the position I have
described. The old player was still continuing his involuntary
concert, with his eyes fixed on his deadly foes.

At the moment when the six negroes raised a simultaneous shout, the
whole band of coyotes thought it high time to bolt. In a twinkling
they disappeared, and the fiddler, frozen and numbed, fell fainting
into the arms of