The Red Cloud chief., 1875-11-04
rHE LITTLE BLACK FIDDLE.

tIE LklLE DLhSh IlID1tILD.
1t hung in the garnet, on one of the
big nails there. all around it the lumber
of an old house-trunka, broken chairs,
a s~uperannuated chest of drawers, a
spinning-wheel, cobwebs.
Years and years ago a tramp had been
taken in at the door in a fainting condi-
ton. He lay all day in a stupor on the
scttec where they had placed him; and,
moved with pity, and in some slight o
siernation rs to what was to become of
him, and Of themselves, too, If this state
continued, tie nous cho!d did what they
could do for him. Just before dark lie
began TO murmcr a broken jargon of
English and foreign tongues, and took
his little black fiddle from his siGc, and
gave il 10 Mr.. Brooks with as impressive
an air as If he bestowed a kingdom; the
children locked 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 q while, and at asst it was
hung up in the garnet, AMI 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 ii a faint echo from IFS hollow
breast, but that was ali the share it had
in it.
What a cheerful group they were,
Belle and Jessie and Fred and Frank,
and the twins rolling over each other,
and c%buckling as if that were the
freshest joke in the worll. They were
Just as cheerful when a dozen years had
passed, and the children were becoming
men and women. childish boisterousness
was becoming higi, bred gayety and the
special talent was developing that which
belonged to each of them.
But the general talen. of that family
was for charity. They had a genius for
ia genius, as Mr.. Brooks Leighbors
used to say, for turning themselves out
of doors in order TO let somebody in; a |
little house, but the largest you ever
knew, for it held the most-hospitable |
to the rich aud poor, but the .wayfarcr
never leaving it unrefreshed, tile sufferer
uncontrolled.
Yet the means to do so much were but
limited. Mr.. Brooks had but a small
income; Mr.. Brooks found it necessary
to count every penny twice over, to turn
and piece and remake, and never waste a
crumb. But when that was all done.
there Wa always something lett for the
widow and the fatherless; and the mo
ment there was anything to do, either
for North street, or Five Points, or Bor-
riOboola, Mrs. Brooks door was the one
first raped at. And what a vivid inter.
est it was that was taken throughout
that house in every case that came up.
from the time the little bright heads
gould cluster together, the little fingers
hold a needle, the little legs run an er.
rand! You could never sec a pretticr
sight than those bright heads. those
glowing faces, those plying eyes. "My
bunch of blossoms" Mr.. Brooks used
to call them, ard say they gave their
honey TO severy bee that v~agabondized
about them. Ard, by.and-by, when
Belle was eighteen, and Jessie was just
turning sixteen, and the rest coming on,
this same sympathy with all suffering
as active IS of old, and Jessie's
face seemed every day, to grow
with the melting tenderness she
10 every one that needed gentle
word or deed, and when she SANG her
'cng in the evening the trait seemed
to have strained itself through :
he rich, sweet tones Of her voice, snd 9
o make the hearers heart respond to its :
ouch and always fill his eyes,with tears. !,
sour JESSIE" the father used to say, :
ought to have different instruction with !
voice. If you hadn't been such a '
wife, all yo.r life, We
hould have laid by enough to send her a
D Italy and have her voice cultivated as ; 81
should be-" o.
"Weil, dear, would you throw away b
your pleasant memories of pain re- h
eyed, ard all the benefits it has wrought J,
the children's characters, and take it hs
It in musica" his wife would ask. 81 n
ould like to have .Jessie's voice at be