3. Little Hugh started in great dismay; for this voice sounded precisely
like that which he had heard every day in Mr. Toil's schoolroom. And
turning his eyes to the captain of the company, what should he see but the
very image of old Mr. Toil himself, in an officer's dress, to be sure, but
looking as ugly and disagreeable as ever.
4. "This is certainly old Mr. Toil," said Hugh, in a trembling voice. "Let
us away, for fear he should make us enlist in his company."
5. "You are mistaken again, my little friend," replied the stranger very
composedly. "This is only a brother of Mr. Toil's, who has served in the
army all his life. You and I need not be afraid of him."
6. "Well, well," said Hugh, "if you please, sir, I don't want to see the
soldiers any more." So the child and the stranger resumed their journey;
and, after awhile, they came to a house by the roadside, where a number of
young men and rosy-cheeked girls, with smiles on their faces, were dancing
to the sound of a fiddle.
7. "Oh, let us stop here," cried Hugh; "Mr. Toil will never dare to show
his face where there is a fiddler, and where people are dancing and making
merry."
8. But the words had scarcely died away on the little boy's tongue, when,
happening to cast his eyes on the fiddler, whom should he behold again but
the likeness of Mr. Toil, armed with a fiddle bow this time, and
flourishing it with as much ease and dexterity as if he had been a fiddler
all his life.
9. "Oh, dear me!" whispered he, turning pale; "it seems as if there were
nobody but Mr. Toil in the world."
10. "This is not your old schoolmaster," observed the stranger, "but
another brother of his, who has learned to be a fiddler. He is ashamed of
his family, and generally calls himself Master Pleasure; but his real name
is Toil, and those who know him best think him still more disagreeable
than his brothers."