clouds would be anything but a catgut-scraper! Even Elshender's
fiddle was the one angel that held back the heavy curtain of his
gross nature, and let the sky shine through. He ought to have been
set fiddling every Sunday morning, and from his fiddling dragged
straight to church. It was the only thing man could have done for
his conversion, for then his heart was open, But I fear the prayers
would have closed it before the sermon came. He should rather have
been compelled to take his fiddle to church with him, and have a
gentle scrape at it in the pauses of the service; only there are no
such pauses in the service, alas! And Dooble Sanny, though not too
religious to get drunk occasionally, was a great deal too religious
to play his fiddle on the Sabbath: he would not willingly anger the
powers above; but it was sometimes a sore temptation, especially
after he got possession of old Mr. Falconer's wonderful instrument.

'Hoots, man!' he would say to Robert; 'dinna han'le, her as gin she
war an egg-box. Tak haud o' her as gin she war a leevin' crater.
Ye maun jist straik her canny, an' wile the music oot o' her; for
she's like ither women: gin ye be rouch wi' her, ye winna get a word
oot o' her. An' dinna han'le her that gait. She canna bide to be
contred an' pu'd this gait and that gait.--Come to me, my bonny
leddy. Ye'll tell me yer story, winna ye, my dauty (pet)?'

And with every gesture as if he were humouring a shy and invalid
girl, he would, as he said, wile the music out of her in sobs and
wailing, till the instrument, gathering courage in his embrace, grew
gently merry in its confidence, and broke at last into airy
laughter. He always spoke, and apparently thought, of his violin as
a woman, just as a sailor does of his craft. But there was nothing
about him, except his love for music and its instruments, to suggest