IV.
When the children had done marching, Mrs. Lee took charge of the games. Several new plays, which none of them had heard of before, were introduced. The boys and girls all liked them very well, and the time passed away most rapidly.
Just before they were going to supper, an old man, with a fiddle in his hand, tottered into the garden, and down the lawn. He was a very queer-looking old man. He had long white hair, and a long white beard.
He was dressed in old, worn-out, soldier clothes, in part, and had a sailor's hat upon his head, so that they could not tell whether he was a soldier or a sailor.
As he approached the children, they began to laugh with all their might; and he certainly was a very funny old man. His long beard and hair, his tattered finery, and his hobbling walk, would have made almost any one laugh—much more a company of children as full of fun as those who were attending the birthday party.
"Children," said the old man, as he took off his hat and made a low bow, "I heard there was a party here, and I came to play the fiddle for you. All the boys and girls like a fiddle, because it is so merry."
"O mother! what did send that old man here?" cried Flora.
"He came of himself, I suppose," replied Mrs. Lee, laughing.