I took very little time for consideration, but, drawing my fiddle from
my pocket, I played a merry waltz as I came out from the forest. The
girls were surprised, and the old folks laughed so that the woods
reechoed with their merriment. But when I reached the linden, and,
leaning my back against it, went on playing gay waltzes, a whisper
went round among the groups of young people to the right and left; the
lads laid aside their pipes, each put his arm around his lass's waist,
and in the twinkling of an eye the young folk were all waltzing around
me; the dogs barked, skirts and coat-tails fluttered, and the children
stood around me in a circle gazing curiously into my face and at my
briskly-moving fingers.
When the first waltz was ended, it was easy to see how good music
loosens the limbs. The peasant lads, who had before been restlessly
shuffling about on the benches, with their pipes in their mouths and
their legs stretched out stiffly in front of them, were positively
transformed, and, with their gay handkerchiefs hanging from the
button-holes of their coats, capered about with the lasses so that it
was a pleasure to look at them. One of them, who evidently thought
a deal of himself, fumbled in his waistcoat-pocket for a long while,
that the others might see him, and finally brought out a little silver
coin, which he tried to put into my hand. It irritated me, although I
had not a stiver in my pocket.
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