parsons--and (by your worship's pardon) no magistrates. The whole world
is a big fiddle--the strings are tuned--Fortune plays upon them; but
some one is wanted to be constantly screwing up the strings; and this is
a job for the parson and magistrate. There's nothing but turning and
screwing, and turning and scraping, and the dance never begins.'"

The fiddler's tongue went running on in this way, until his worship at
length took a friendly leave of him. We shall, however, remain, and tell
the reader something of the history of this strange character.

It is now nearly thirty years since the old man first made his
appearance in the village, just at the time when the new church was
consecrated. When he first came among the villagers, he played for three
days and three nights almost incessantly the maddest tunes.
Superstitious folks muttered one to another that it must be Old Nick
himself who could draw such spirit and life from the instrument, as
never to let any one have rest or quiet any more than he seemed to
require it himself. During the whole of this time he scarcely ate a
morsel, and only drank--but in potent draughts--during the pauses. Often
it seemed as if he did not stir a finger, but merely laid the
fiddlestick on the strings, and magic sounds instantly came out of them,
while the fiddle-bow hopped up and down of itself.

Hey-day! there was a merrymaking and piece of work in the large
dancing-room of the "Sun." Once, during a pause, the hostess, a buxom
portly widow, cried out, "Hold hard, fiddler; do stop--the cattle are
all quarrelling with you, and will starve if you don't let the lads and
girls go home and feed them. If you've no pity on us folks, do for
goodness' sake stop your fiddling for the sake of the poor dumb
creatures."

"Just so!" cried the fiddler; "here you can see how man is the noblest
animal on the face of the earth; man alone can dance--ay, dance in
couples. Hark ye, hostess, if you'll dance a turn with me, I'll stop my
fiddlestick for a whole hour."

The musician jumped off the table. All the by-standers pressed the
hostess, till at length she consented to dance. She clasped her partner
tight round the waist, whilst he kept hold of his fiddle, drawing from
it sounds never before heard; and in this comical manner, playing and
dancing, they performed their evolutions in the circle of spectators;
and at length, with a brilliant scrape of his bow, he concluded,
embraced the hostess, and