He gave the second verse of the song, which before he had omitted, and then sang the dainty little love song,—
"Dusk, and the shadows falling
O'er land and sea;
Somewhere a voice is calling,
Calling for me!"
Yet even that did not satisfy his audience. So he returned once more and gave in an irresistibly rollicking way a song in Yankee dialect, the refrain to which,—
"Oh, my boy Jonathan is jest as good as gold!
An' he always fills the wood-box 'ithout bein' told!"—
tagging as it did the various topics of the old farmer's discourse upon his son, never failed to bring laughter from his hearers.
At the end the applause was long and urgent; but Doodles had run away, and would not come back.
Polly slipped up to Miss Sterling.
"Will you play for us now?—please, Miss Nita!" seeing a refusal in the eyes that met her own.
"I am not in practice. I should hate to break down before all these people," she smiled.
"There isn't one mite of danger!" Polly asserted confidently. "Do come, Miss Nita! Mr. Randolph, I wish you'd coax her to come! She can play magnificently!"