An idler, a strayer,

And left her husband furious threatening to slay her,

And cursing musicians who have no honest missions.

So Starling Turner, a belated learner

Of life as music, laughter, folly,

Grew suddenly jolly, forgot his melancholy,

Became a dancer and rounded up the fiddlers,

Got up a contest of fifty old fiddlers,

With prizes for fiddling from best to middling:

A set of fine harness for the best piece of fiddling.