ere were

scores of melancholy little carts which, when the
wheels went round, performed most doleful music. Many
small fiddles, drums, and other instruments of torture.

The old man made a rude kind of harp specially for his poor
blind daughter, and on which Dot used to play when she visited
the toy-maker's. Caleb's musical contribution would be 'a
Bacchanalian song, something about a sparkling bowl,' which
much annoyed his grumpy employer.

'What! you're singing, are you?' said Tackleton, putting
his head in at the door. 'Go it, _I_ can't sing.'

Nobody would have suspected him of it. He hadn't what
is generally termed a singing face, by any means.

The wonderful duet between the cricket and the kettle at the
commencement of _The Cricket on the Hearth_ certainly deserves
mention, though it is rather difficult to know whether to
class the performers as instrumentalists or singers. The kettle
began it with a series of short vocal snorts, which at first
it checked in the bud, but finally it burst into a stream of
song, 'while the lid performed a sort of jig, and clattered
like a deaf and dumb cymbal that had never known the use of its
twin brother.' Then the cricket came in with its chirp, chirp,
chirp, and at it they went in fierce rivalry until 'the kettle,
being dead beat, boiled over, and was taken off the fire.'

Dickens was certainly partial to the cricket, for elsewhere
(_M.H.C._) we read of the clock that

makes cheerful music, like one of those chirping
insects who delight in the warm hearth.

There are two or three references to the key bugle, which
also used to be known as the Kent bugle. It was a popular
instrument half a century ago, as the addition of keys gave
it a much greater range of notes than the ordinary bugle
possessed. A notable though inefficient performer was the
driver who took Martin Chuzzlewit up to London.

He was musical, besides, and had a little key bugle in
his pocket on which, whenever the conversation flagged,
he played the first part of a great many tunes, and
regularly broke down in the second.

This instrument was on Mr. Feeder's _agenda_.

Two more instruments demand our attention. At the marriage
of Tackleton and May Fielding (_C.H._) there were to be
marrow-bones and cleavers, while to celebrate the union of
Trotty Veck's daughter Meg and Richard they had a band including
the aforesaid instruments and also the dr