The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-08-05
THE LITTLE BLACK FIDDLE,

BY HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
IT hung in the garret, on one of the big
nails there, all around it the usual lumber
of an old house-trunks, broken chairs,
a superannuated chest of drawers, a spin.
ning-wheel, cobwebs
Years and years ago tramp had been
taken in at the door in 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 murmur Il broken jargon of En-
glish and foreign tongues, and took his
little black fiddle from his side and gave
it to Mr.. Brooks with as impressive an
air as if he bestowed a kingdom the
children looking on, wide-eyed and open
mOuthcd. 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 garret, and there had been the
end Of it.
The little fiddle hung forgotten on 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
fyibratcd 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
chuckIing as if that were the freshest
joke in the world. They We're 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
for charity. They had genius for it-a
genius, as Mrs Brooks neighborS used to
say, for turning themselves out of doors in
order to oletsomebody else in; a little house,
but the largest you ever knew, for it held
the most--hospitable to rich and poor, the
wayfarer never leaving it unrefreshed, the
sufferer uncontrolled.
Yet the means to do so much were but
limited. Mr. 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 OF
the Five Points or Borrioboola, Mrs
Brooks door was the one first raped at
And what 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 a needle, the little legs run
an errand! You could never see a pret
tier sight than those bright heads, those
glowing faces, those plying eyes. My
bunch of blossoms Mr. Brooks used tc
call them, and say they gave their honey
to every bee that vagabondized about them
And by and by, when Belle was eighteen
and Jessie just turning sixteen, and the
rest coming on, this same sympathy with
all suffering was as active as of old; anC
Jessie's lovely face seemed every day tc
grow lovelier with the melting tenderness
she felt 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 through the rich
sweet tones of her voice and to make the
hearers heart respond to its touch and al
ways fill his eyes with tears.
"Our Jessie,'' the father used to say
| fought to have different instruction witt
! that voice. If you hadn't been such {
Sandemanian, wife, all your life, w
should have laid by enough to seqd her tt
italy and have her voice cultivated as i
should be-"
"Wen, dear, would you throw away al
! your pleasant memories of pain relieved
! and all the benefit it has wrought the chill
dren's characters, and take il out in mu
sic?" his wife would ask. "Ishould Hk'
| to have Jessie's voice attended to; but
| bless you, it might do her more harm thar
good"
"Harmm said Belle once, as they talke(
it over.
eyes, dear; we all have our vanities
and to nurse ones pride -"
"Oh, mamma, but to stand up and lift
thousand people on yonr voice as if i
were wings for them! Think Of that! O.
the delight she could give so many, and
then of the fortune she could make and thu
things she could dol We would have tha
children's hospital, and"
:" Very true,'' sighed Mrs. Brooks
"Very true" sighed her husband. az
would take 81 800 to send Jessie to Italy
She would be too old TO have it do hel
voice any good by the time could get Sc
much together" And Just there came il
the minister's wife to see about the con