ow get your fiddle, Vavrika," he said as he
opened his flute case.

But Joe settled back in his wooden rocker and wagged his big carpet
slipper. "No-no-no-no-no-no-no! No play fiddle now any more: too much
ache in de finger," waving them, "all-a-time rheumatic. You play de
flute, te-tety-tetety-te. Bohemie songs."

"I've forgotten all the Bohemian songs I used to play with you and
Johanna. But here's one that will make Clara pout. You remember how her
eyes used to snap when we called her the Bohemian Girl?" Nils lifted his
flute and began "When Other Lips and Other Hearts," and Joe hummed the
air in a husky baritone, waving his carpet slipper. "Oh-h-h, das-a fine
music," he cried, clapping his hands as Nils finished. "Now 'Marble
Halls, Marble Halls'! Clara, you sing him."

Clara smiled and leaned back in her chair, beginning softly:

"I dreamt that I dwelt in ma-a-arble halls,
With vassals and serfs at my knee,"

and Joe hummed like a big bumblebee.

"There's one more you always played," Clara said quietly, "I remember
that best." She locked her hands over her knee and began "The Heart
Bowed Down," and sang it through without groping for the words. She was
singing with a good deal of warmth when she came to the end of the old
song:

"For memory is the only friend
That grief can call its own."

Joe flashed out his red silk handkerchief and blew his nose, shaking his
head. "No-no-no-no-no-no-no! Too sad, too sad! I not like-a dat. Play
quick somet'ing gay now."

Nils put his lips to the instrument, and Joe lay back in his chair,
laughing and singing, "Oh, Evelina, Sweet Evelina!" Clara laughed, too.
Long ago, when she and Nils went to high school, the model student of
their class was a very homely girl in thick spectacles. Her name was
Evelina Oleson; she had a long, swinging walk which somehow suggested
the measure of that song, and they used mercilessly to sing it at her.

"Dat ugly Oleson girl, she teach in de school," Joe gasped, "an' she
still walks chust like dat, yup-a, yup-a, yup-a, chust like a
camel she go! Now, Nils, we have some more li'l drink. Oh,
yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-_yes_! Dis time you haf to drink, and Clara she
haf to, so she show she not jealous. So, we all drink to your girl. You
not tell her name, eh? No-no-no, I no make you tell. She pretty, eh? She
make good sweetheart? I bet!" Joe winked and lifted his glass. "How soon
you get married?"