"
"Musicians are very rare in the country about here," she began again,
then stammered, and cast down her eyes. "You might earn a deal of
money here. My father plays the fiddle a little, and likes to hear
about foreign countries--and my father is very rich." Then she
laughed, and said, "If you only would not waggle your head so, when
you play." "My dearest girl," I said, "do not blush so--and as for the
tremoloso motion of the head, we can't help it, great musicians all do
it." "Oh, indeed!" rejoined the girl. She was about to say more, when
a terrible racket arose in the inn; the front door was opened with a
bang, and a tall, lean fellow was shot out of it like a ramrod, after
which it was slammed to behind him.
At the first sound the girl ran off like a deer and vanished in the
darkness. The man picked himself up and began to rave against the
inn with such volubility that it was a wonder to hear him. "What!" he
yelled, "I drunk? I not pay the chalk-marks on your smoky door? Rub
them out! rub them out! Did I not shave you yesterday over a ladle,
and cut you just under the nose so that you bit the ladle in two?
Shaving takes off one mark; ladle, another mark; court-plaster on your
nose, another. How many more of your dirty marks do you want to have
paid? But all right--all right. I'll let the whole village, the whole
world go unshaved. Wear your beards, for all I care, till they are so
long that at the judgment-day the Almighty will not know whether you
are Jews or Christians.
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