Well, he was gone three weeks, and came home with six thousand
dollars, which he had taken for mother's share; but she said she knew
he had been cheated.
"Every dollar of that money remained in the house until I got married
and came off here. I got two thousand of it, one negro, and two hundred
head of cattle. I had promised my wife's people that I would come and
live with them. I am glad I did. I was twenty-one years old when I
learned my letters. I have been lucky; have educated my children, and
they have educated me, and are talking about running me for Congress.
Well, my friend, I believe I could be elected; but that is a small part
of the business. I should be of no service to the State, and only show
my own ignorance. Come, Sue, can't you give the gentleman some music?
Give me my fiddle, and I will help you."
Sue was a beautiful and interesting girl of nineteen, only a short time
returned from a four-years residence at the famous Patapsco Institute.
She had music in her soul, and the art to pour it out through her
fingers' ends. It was an inheritance from her extraordinary father, as
any judge of music would have said, who had heard the notes melting
from that old black violin, on that rainy night in December.
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