Gay nodded, and proceeded to support him.
“Y’see, most of our leddies has got higher than ’cordions an’ sech things. Though I ’lows a concertina takes a beatin’. Still, education has got loose on Barnriff, an’ 242 I heerd tell as ther’s some o’ the folks yearnin’ fer piannys. I did hear one of our leadin’ citizens, Mr. Anthony Smallbones, was about to finance a brass band layout.”
“Ther’ ain’t nuthin’ to beat a slap-up band,” agreed the freighter politely. “But these yer harmoniums, they’re kind o’ cussed, some. Guess my ma had one some years back, but she traded it off fer a new cook-stove, with a line o’ Chicago bacon thrown in. I won’t say but she had the best o’ the deal, too. Y’see that ther’ harmonium had its drawbacks. You never could gamble if it had a cold in the head or a mortal pain in its vitals. It wus kind o’ passionate in some of its keys, and wep’ an’ sniveled like a spanked kid in others. Then it would yep like a hound if you happened to push the wrong button, an’ groan to beat the band if you didn’t. Nope. They’re cur’us things if they ain’t treat right, an’ I guess my ma hadn’t got the knack o’ pullin’ them bolts right. Y’see she’d been trained hoein’ kebbeges on a farm in her early years, an’ I guess ther’ ain’t nothin’ more calc’lated to fix a woman queer fer the doin’s o’ perlite sassiety than hoein’ kebbeges. Guess I’ll get right on.”
He paid for his drink, and, followed by the whole company, hobbled out to his wagon. He was a queer figure, but, at the moment, his defects were forgotten in the interest created by his mission to Barnriff.
What prosperity the possession of a harmonium suggested to those men might have been judged by the attitude they took up the moment they were outside. They crowded round the wagon and gazed at the baize-covered instrument, caged within its protecting crate. They reached out and felt it through the baize; they peeked in through the gaping covering, and a hushed 243 awe prevailed, until, with a cheery wave of the hand, the teamster drove off in the direction of Eve’s house.
Then the chorus of comment broke out.
“Gee!” exclaimed Wilkes. “A––a harmonium!” Then, overpowered by his emotion, he remained silent.
“Psha! Makes me sick!” cried Smallbones. “My sister in Iowa has got a fiddle; an’ I know she plays five toons on it––I’ve heerd her. She’s got a mouth organ, too, an’ a musical-box––electric! One ’ud think nobody had got nuthin’ but Will Henderson.” He strode back to the bar in dudgeon, filled to the brim with malicious envy.
Others took quite a different tone.
“It’s walnut,” said Restless, his professional instincts fully alert.