III.
But pitching grain and hog-killing were on the lower levels of his art,for above all else Daddy loved to be called upon to play the fiddle fordances. He "officiated" for the first time at a dance given by one ofthe younger McTurgs. They were all fiddlers themselves--had been forthree generations--but they seized the opportunity of helping Daddy andat the same time of relieving themselves of the trouble of furnishingthe music while the rest danced.
Milton attended this dance, and saw Daddy for the first time earning hismoney pleasantly. From that time on the associations around hispersonality were less severe, and they came to like him better. He cameearly, with his old fiddle in a time-worn white-pine box. His hair wasneatly combed to the top of his long, narrow head, and his face was veryclean. The boys all greeted him with great pleasure, and asked him wherehe would sit.
"Eight on that table, sir; put a chair up there."
He took his chair on the kitchen-table as if it were a throne. He worehuge moccasins of moose-hide on his feet, and for special occasions likethis added a paper collar to his red woolen shirt. He took off his coatand laid it across his chair for a cushion. It was all very funny to theyoung people, but they obeyed him laughingly, and while they "formedon," he sawed his violin and coaxed it up to concert pitch, and twangedit and banged it into proper tunefulness.
"A-a-a-ll-ready there!" he rasped out, with prodigious force. "Everybodygit into his place!" Then, lifting one huge foot, he put the fiddleunder his chin, and, raising his bow till his knuckles touched thestrings, he yelled, "Already, G'LANG!" and brought his foot down with astartling bang on the first note. _Rye doodle doo, doodle doo._
As he went on and the dancers fell into rhythm, the clatter of heavyboots seemed to thrill him with old-time memories, and he keptboisterous time with his foot while his high, rasping nasal rang highabove the confusion of tongues and heels and swaying forms.
"_Ladies_' gran' change! FOUR hands round! _Bal_-ance all! _Elly_-manleft! Back to play-cis."
His eyes closed in a sort of intoxication of pleasure, but he saw allthat went on in some miraculous way.
"_First_ lady lead to the right--_toodle rum rum! Gent_ foller after(step along thar)! Four hands round"----
The boys were immensely pleased with him. They delighted in his anticsrather than in his tunes, which were exceedingly few and simple. Theyseemed never to be able to get enough of one tune which he called"Honest John," and which he played in his own way, accompanied by achant which he meant, without doubt, to be musical.
"HON-ers tew your pardners--_tee teedle deedle dee dee dee dee!_ Standup straight an' put on your style! _Right_ an' left four"----
The hat was passed by the floor-manager during the evening, and Daddygot nearly three dollars, which delighted Milton very much.
At supper he insisted on his prerogative, which was to take theprettiest girl out to supper.
"Look-a-here, Daddy, ain't that crowdin' the mourners?" objected theothers.
"What do you mean by that, sir? No, sir! Always done it, in Michigan andYark State both; yes, sir."
He put on his coat ceremoniously, while the tittering girls stood aboutthe room waiting. He did not delay. His keen eyes had made selectionlong before, and, approaching Rose Watson with old-fashioned, elaborategallantry, he said: "_May_ I have the pleasure?" and marched outtriumphantly, amidst shouts of laughter.
His shrill laugh rang high above the rest at the table, as he said: "I'mthe youngest man in this crowd, sir! Demmit, I bet a hat I c'n dancedown any man in this crowd; yes, sir. The old man can do it yet."
They all took sides in order to please him.
"I'll bet he can," said Hugh McTurg; "I'll bet a dollar on Daddy."
"I'll take the bet," said Joe Randall, and with great noise the matchwas arranged to come the first thing after supper.
"All right, sir; any time, sir. I'll let you know the old man is onearth yet."
While the girls were putting away the supper dishes, the young man luredDaddy out into the yard for a wrestling-match, but some of the othersobjected.
"Oh, now, that won't do! If Daddy was a young man"----
"What do you mean, sir? I am young enough for you, sir. Just let me getahold o' you, sir, and I'll show you, you young rascal! you demjackanapes!" he ended, almost shrieking with rage, as he shook his fistin the face of his grinning tormentors.
The others held him back with much apparent alarm, and ordered the otherfellows away.
"There, there, Daddy, I wouldn't mind him! I wouldn't dirty my hands onhim; he ain't worth it. Just come inside, and we'll have thatdancing-match now."
Daddy reluctantly returned to the house, and, having surrendered hisviolin to Hugh McTurg, was ready for the contest. As he stepped into themiddle of the room he was not altogether ludicrous. His rusty trouserswere bagged at the knee, and his red woolen stockings showed between thetops of his moccasins and his pantaloon-legs; and his coat, utterlycharacterless as to color and cut, added to the stoop in his shoulders,and yet there was a rude sort of grace and a certain dignity about hisbearing which kept down laughter. They were to have a square dance ofthe old-fashioned sort.
"_Farrm_ on," he cried, and the fiddler struck out the first note of theVirginia Reel. Daddy led out Rose, and the dance began. He straightenedup till his tall form towered above the rest of the boys like aweather-beaten pine-tree, as he balanced and swung and led and calledoff the changes with a voice full of imperious command.
The fiddler took a malicious delight toward the last in quickening thetime of the good old dance, and that put the old man on his mettle.
"Go it, ye young rascal!" he yelled. He danced like a boy and yelledlike a demon, catching a laggard here and there, and hurling them intoplace like tops, while he kicked and stamped, wound in and out and wavedhis hands in the air with a gesture which must have dated back to thedays of Washington. At last, flushed, breathless, but triumphant, hedanced a final break-down to the tune of "Leather Breeches," to show hewas unsubdued.