"I'll warrant you, madam," I said to the woman who now stood
frankly in the doorway with her hands wrapped in her apron, "you
haven't heard those tunes since you were a girl and danced to
'em."
"You're right," she responded heartily.
"I'll give you another jolly one," I said, and, replacing my
whistle, I began with even greater zest to play "Yankee Doodle."
When I had gone through it half a dozen times with such added
variations and trills as I could command, and had two of the
children hopping about in the yard, and the forlorn man tapping
his toe to the tune, and a smile on the face of the forlorn
woman, I wound up with a rush and then, as if I could hold myself
in no longer (and I couldn't either!), I suddenly burst out:
Yankee doodle dandy!
Yankee doodle dandy!
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
It may seem surprising, but I think I can understand why it
was--when I looked up at the woman in the doorway there were
tears in her eyes!
"Do you know 'John Brown's Body'?" eagerly inquired the little
girl with the dipper, and then, as if she had done something
quite bold and improper, she blushed and edged toward the
doorway.
"How does it go?" I asked, and one of the bold lads in the yard
instantly puckered his lips to show me, and immediately they were
all trying it.
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