It was the band!
It was the band, and I was hearing music for the first time in my life!
After that with me all grew dark and blank.
I had fainted.
I was found lying on the grass, and when I came to myself that being whom I took for more than mortal was kneeling beside me and bending over me, chafing my hands, and saying:—
"Quick! quick! bring a light and water! The poor boy has fainted." Others were around me, and some hurried away.
"Poor boy!" I thought. "Poor boy, whom she has touched!"
"What caused it?" she asked me, pushing my hair back from my forehead. "What a pretty boy he is. Do you know, dear, what caused it?"
"I don't know," I said, as well as I could; "I think it must have been the band. I never heard music before."
"Never heard music before?" she cried in astonishment, "Are you sure? Where have you lived that you never heard music before?"