“But you were told not to touch them, and you disobeyed. Now you are going to get a whipping for it,” replied Betty, catching her under lip in her little white teeth, and raising once more the five-foot and inch-thick switch. When it had been lifted above him before, Kettle had bawled loudly, but at the sight of Betty standing on tiptoe with the switch grasped in both hands, Kettle’s open mouth suddenly extended in a huge grin, and he burst into a subdued guffaw. In vain, Betty held the switch aloft and tried to screw up courage to bring it down on Kettle. It was quite impossible with Kettle grinning before her and chuckling openly. Betty herself suddenly burst out laughing, and dropped the switch.
“The only thing I can think of to do with you, Kettle,” she said, “is to teach you to play the fiddle.”
At that, Kettle’s mouth, if possible, came wider open than ever.
“Lord, Miss Betty!” he cried, “does you mean you is a-gwine to put the bow in my han’ and lemme scrape them strings with it?”
“Yes, indeed,” answered Betty. “I will teach you your notes, and Uncle Cesar will show you how to handle the bow.”
From that day began Kettle’s musical education. The Colonel sitting in his great chair, would smile at Betty with the music-book, instructing Kettle in the notes which she knew. Kettle was extremely stupid at learning his notes, and Betty frequently promised him the long delayed switching for his negligence. But as soon as Uncle Cesar took charge of him and put the bow in his hand, Kettle learned with amazing rapidity.
“I am afraid, my dear,” the Colonel would say to Betty on these occasions, “that Kettle can master the concrete better than the abstract. However, he must learn his notes.”
Kettle progressed so fast that in the course of a couple of months he enjoyed the privilege of playing a second to the Colonel’s fiddle. The boy’s arms were barely long enough to use a grown-up fiddle. As he played, he shuffled about in rapture, and Betty taught him to do the back-step and double shuffle while he played. It was a new amusement in the Colonel’s quiet life to have Kettle come in the sitting-room in the evening after supper, and play and dance for him, while Kettle enjoyed the performance beyond words.