A Village Stradivarius

Transcribed from the 1904 Gay and Bird edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
LONDON GAY AND BIRD 1904
THIS STORY APPEARS IN ‘THE VILLAGE WATCHTOWER.’
All rights reserved
“Goodfellow, Puck and goblins, Know more than any book. Down with your doleful problems, And court the sunny brook. The south-winds are quick-witted, The schools are sad and slow, The masters quite omitted The lore we care to know.” Emerson’s April .
“Find the three hundred and seventeenth page, Davy, and begin at the top of the right-hand column.”
The boy turned the leaves of the old instruction book obediently, and then began to read in a sing-song, monotonous tone:
“‘One of Pag-pag’”—
“Pag-a-ni-ni’s”
“‘One of Paggernyner’s’ (I wish all the fellers in your stories didn’t have such tough old names!) ‘most dis-as-ter-ous triumphs he had when playing at Lord Holland’s.’ (Who was Lord Holland, uncle Tony?) ‘Some one asked him to im-provise on the violin the story of a son who kills his father, runs a-way, becomes a high-way-man, falls in love with a girl who will not listen to him; so he leads her to a wild country site, suddenly jumping with her from a rock into an a-b-y-s-s’”
“Abyss.”