ty,' first claims our attention. He used
to play the organ at the village church 'for nothing.' It was a
simple instrument, 'the sweetest little organ you ever heard,'
provided with wind by the action of the musician's feet,
and thus Tom was independent of a blower, though he was so
beloved that

there was not a man or boy in all the village and
away to the turnpike (tollman included) but would have
blown away for him till he was black in the face.

What a delight it must have been to him to avail himself of
the opportunity to play the organ in the cathedral when he
went to meet Martin!

As the grand tones resounded through the church they
seemed, to Tom, to find an echo in the depth of every
ancient tomb, no less than in the deep mystery of his
own heart.

And he would have gone on playing till midnight 'but for a
very earthy verger,' who insisted on locking up the cathedral
and turning him out.

On one occasion, while he was practising at the church, the
miserable Pecksniff entered the building and, hiding behind
a pew, heard the conversation between Tom and Mary that led
to the former being dismissed from the architect's office,
so he had to leave his beloved organ, and mightily did the
poor fellow miss it when he went to London! Being an early
riser, he had been accustomed to practise every morning,
and now he was reduced to taking long walks about London,
a poor substitute indeed!

Nor was the organ the only instrument that he could play,
for we read how he would spend half his nights poring over the
'jingling anatomy of that inscrutable old harpsichord in the
back parlour,' and amongst the household treasures that he
took to London were his music and an old fiddle.

The picture which forms our frontispiece shows Tom Pinch playing
his favourite instrument. At the sale of the original drawings
executed by 'Phiz' for _Martin Chuzzlewit_ this frontispiece,
which is an epitome of the salient characters and scenes in
the novel, was sold for L35.

We read in _Christmas Stories_ that

Silas Jorgan
Played the organ,

but we are not told the name of the artist who at the concert
at the Eagle (_S.B.C._ 4) accompanied a comic song on the
organ--and such an organ!

Miss J'mima Ivins's friend's young man whispered it
had cost 'four hundred pound,' which Mr. Samuel Wilkins
said was 'not dear neither.'

The singer was probably either Howell or Glindon. Dickens