St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-04-16

-
science babe her, just the best she
knew how. So after Miss Matilda
had given us the Turkish Retreat
the "Welington Boots Quickstep,'
and other carefully rendered selec-
tons, Helen and could do no less.
We Numbered at Bach and trilIed at
Chopin in the best conservatory style
we had been taught, and %snickered in
our sleeves (they were wide then, too.
my dears, but at the bottom and not
the top. How Cousin Linn gaped.
| actually thought the mans eyes
would pop ont OF his head.
Then we made him play. He had
to be almost dragged to the piano
this time, but we were eager and Gu
rious to see him 60 through with his
little jigs and reels again after ourold
masters.
So Cousin Linn took his seat at
the instrument. Somehow, as he
sat there idly lingering the keys for a
moment, the stoop went out OF his
back and the dull look faded from his
eyes. and he seemed almost hand
some.
Suddenly he threw his head back
like a warhorse and struck a chord.
| never heard a like sound come from
Miss Craig's old piano or any other.
Grand and full and sweet, it sounded
in the ears OF our guilty consciences
like the trump Of doom. Again he
struck the keys, and we felt that if it
had not been for the expense and
trouble to poor Miss Craig we would
have liked then and there to sink
through her best parlor carpet.
Then our cousin flung back hislong
hair and started off in earnest. What
it was he played l have never known,
but if it be possible to crowd more
runs, %cadenzas, shakes, arpeggios
and other tests of technique into one
piece OF music | have never heard that
piece. The music seemed to flow
from him like a river, and it was a
pleasure to watch the swift and easy
movements of his fingers. With
hardly a pause and never alook from
the player at his two shame.faced
auditors the tones of the piano
drifted from the grand to the light
and airy, from the classic to the mod
ern, and finally into a soft and
dreamy adagio that brought tears
to the eyes that had just now before
beamed with the laughter or mischief.
And all the while poor little Miss
Craig looked on, with folded hands,
and never dreamed what a tempes,
of remorse she had stirred up in two
hearts.
Well. remorse meant repentance
and repentance meant reparation.
1--WE must take him back every
where and show what he can really
do" said Sister Helen as she fingered
behind with me at Craig's gate pre-
tending to fasten my sash.
So back we went. Our faces Ions
as the shadows Of the falling evening
told every girl friend that something
was wrong, and when we had played
and they had played and Cousin Linz
had played they knew what it was
And when we had closed the las.
gate and turned homeward we wer'
two sad and conscience stricken girl
and one silent and solemn man.
But as we neared the house Cousin
Inns downcast ewes began slowl,
to turn toward us, and as they iel
upon IL woebegone countenance
the preternaturally grave lines wen
out of his face like a dissolving view
in a stereopticon and he fell down
the man actually fell fat in a fit.
And we solemnly picked up on
skirts and left him there groveling il
a CONFUSION OF laughter that scare,
the birds from every tree in the block
Cousin Linn came again to tn
house many times afterward. H
often played for us, but the paint
subject vas never referred to. w
did not consider him awkward an
more. In fact, | was beginning t
think him quite handsome when on
day came unobserved into the gal
den, where he and Helen sat, an
heard her ask for the first time hi
forgiveness for the trick that had r,
coiled so shamefully upon us.
l thought the man would fall int
t one of his hateful fits and turned t
go, but he only bent over her an
. whispered his reply, while l sto'
, back through the trees to the hous
So the end nj IL oil uos tba+ Lo