Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-08-05
THE LITTLE BLACK FIDDLE. q
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.

BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPOFFoRD.
IT hung in the garnet, on one of the bic
nails there, all around it the usual lumber
OF an old house-trunks, broken chairs,
superannuated chest of drawers, a spin
ning-wheel, cObwebs
ears and years ago a tramp had been
taken IN at the door in a fainting cOndi
ton. He lay all day in stupor on the
settee where they had placed him; and,
moved with pity, and in some slight
CONSERVATION as to what was to become of
him, and OF themselves, too, if this state
continued, the household did what they
could for him. just before dark he be-
gan to mrmur a broken iargon of En-
glish and foreign tongues, and took his
little black fiddle from his side and gave
1t to Mr.. Brooks with as impressive an
air as if he bestowed kingdom, the
children looking on, wide-eyed and open
mOuthed. Then he died and was buried
and nobody ever knew anything further
about him; and the children twanged the
fiddle awhile, and at last it was hung up
IN the garnet, and there had been the
end of it,
The little fiddle hung forgotten Oh its
nail; but the children grew in strength
and beauty every day, and made the house
nearly as lively as the ark must have
been in all the forty days before it rested
on Ararat. Sometimes the little fiddle
vibrated to their laughter, and gave it a
faint echo from its hollow breast, but that
was all the share it had in it.
What cheerful group they were, Belle
and Jessie and Fred and Frank, and the
twins always rolling over each other. and
chuckling as if that were the freshest
joke in the world. They were Just as
cheerful when dozen years had passed,
and the children were becoming men
and women, childish boisterousness was
becoming high bred gayety, and the
special talent was developing that be-
longed to each of them.
But the general talent of that family was
Tor charity. They had genius for it-a
genius, as Mrs. Brooks neighbors used to
say, for turning themselves out of doors in
order to let somebody else in /; a little house,
but the largest you ever knew, for it held
the most-hospitable to rich and poor, the
waytarer never leaving it unrefreshed, the
sufferer uncontrolled
Yet the means to do so much were but
limited. 4Ir Brooks had but small in
come; Mrs. Brooks found it necessary to
count every penny twice over, TO turn and
piece and remake, and never to waste a
crumb. But when that was all done there
was always something left for the widow
and fatherless; and the moment there was
anything to do, either for North Street or
the Five Points or Borroboola. Mrs.
Brooks door was the one first raped at
And what a vivid interest it was that was
taken throughout that house in every case
that came up from the time the little
bright heads could cluster together, the lit
tie fingers hold needle, the little legs run
an errandl You could never see pref
tier sight than those bright heads, those
glowing faces, those plying eyes. My
bunch of blossoms" Mr.. Brooks used to
call them, and say they gave their honey
TO every bee that vagabondized about them.
And by and by, when Belle was eighteen,
ana Jessie just turning sixteen, and the
rest coming on, this same, sympathy with
all suffering was as active as of old; and
Jessle's lovely face seemed every day to
grow lovelier with the melting tenderness
she 1elt TO every one that needed gentle
word or deed, and when she sang her songs
in the evening the trait seemed somehow
to have strained itself Though the rich,
sweet tones of her voice and to make the