a circle of wondering listeners that so acute was his ear that he was wholly unable to sing out of tune, let him try as he would.
Mr. Weller senior laid a deep plot in which a piano was to take a prominent part. His object was to effect Mr. Pickwick's escape from the Fleet.
Me and a cab'net-maker has dewised a plan for gettin' him out. ‘A pianner, Samivel, a pianner,’ said Mr. Weller, striking his son on the chest with the back of his hand, and falling back a step or two.
‘Wot do you mean?’ said Sam.
‘A pianner-forty, Samivel,’ rejoined Mr. Weller, in a still more mysterious manner, ‘as he can have on hire; vun as von't play, Sammy.’
‘And wot 'ud be the good of that?’ said Sam.
‘There ain't no vurks in it,’ whispered his father. ‘It 'ull hold him easy, vith his hat and shoes on; and breathe through the legs, vich is holler.’
But the usually dutiful Sam showed so little enthusiasm for his father's scheme that nothing more was heard of it.
CHAPTER III
VARIOUS INSTRUMENTS
FLUTE, ORGAN, GUITAR (AND SOME HUMMERS)
Flute
We find several references to the flute, and Dickens contrives to get much innocent fun out of it. First comes Mr. Mell, who used to carry his instrument about with him and who, in response to his mother's invitation to ‘have a blow at it’ while David Copperfield was having his breakfast, made, said David, ‘the most dismal sounds I have ever heard produced by any means, natural or artificial.’ After he had finished he unscrewed his flute into three pieces, and deposited them underneath the skirts of his coat.
Dickens' schoolmasters seem to have been partial to the flute. Mr. Squeers, it is true, was not a flautist, but Mr. Feeder, B.A., was, or rather he was going to be. When little Paul Dombey visited his tutor's room he saw ‘a flute which Mr. Feeder couldn't play yet, but was going to make a point of learning, he said, hanging up over the fireplace.’
He also had a beautiful little curly second-hand ‘key bugle,’ which was also on the list of things to be accomplished on some future occasion, in fact he has unlimited confidence in the power and influence of music. Here is his advice to the love-stricken Mr. Toots, whom he recommends to
learn the guitar, or at least the flute; for women like music when you are paying your addresses to 'em, and he has found the advantage of it himself.