nscience said to me, that I must
do as he said, seeing he had taken all that trouble, and come down to
look after us. If he spoke the truth, and nobody could listen to him
without being sure of that, there was nothing left but just to do the
thing he said. So I set about getting a hold of anything he did say,
and trying to do it. And then it was that I first began to be able to
play on the fiddle, though I had been muddling away at it for a long
time before. I knew I could play then, because I understood what it
said to me, and got help out of it. I don't really mean that, you know,
miss; for I know well enough that the fiddle in itself is nothing, and
nothing is anything but the way God takes to teach us. And that's how I
came to know you, miss."

"How do you mean that?" asked Mary.

"I used to be that frightened of Sister Ann that, after I came to
London, I wouldn't have gone near her, but that I thought Jesus Christ
would have me go; and, if I hadn't gone to see her, I should never have
seen you. When I went to see her, I took my fiddle with me to take care
of me; and, when she would be going on at me, I would just give my
fiddle a squeeze under my arm, and that gave me patience."

"But we heard you playing to her, you know."

"That was because I always forgot myself while she was talking. The
first time, I remember, it was from misery--what she was saying sounded
so wicked, making God out not fit for any honest man to believe in. I
began to play without knowing it, and it couldn't have been very loud,
for she went on about the devil picking up the good seed sown in the
heart. Off I went into that, and there I saw no end of birds with long
necks and short legs gobbling up the corn. But, a little way off, there
was the long beautiful stalks growing strong and high, waving in God's
wind; and the birds did not go near them."

Mary drew a long breath, and said to herself:

"The man is a poet!"--"You're not afraid of your sister now?" she said
to him.

"Not a bit," he answered. "Since I knew you, I feel as if we had in a
sort of a way changed places, and she was a little girl that must be
humored and made the best of. When she scolds, I laugh, and try to make
a bit of fun with her. But she's always so sure she's right, that you
wonder how the world got made before she was up."

They parted with the understanding that, when he came next, she should
give him his first lesson in reading music. With herself Mary made