About the middle of the forenoon they began to go up a long hill.
By-and-by this hill suddenly dropped down into a pretty valley, where
the travelers saw, to their surprise, a small house standing by the
road-side.
It was the first house they had seen, and they hastened into the valley
to discover who lived there. No one was in sight as they approached,
but when they began to get nearer the house they heard queer sounds
coming from it. They could not make these out at first, but as they
became louder our friends thought they heard a sort of music like that
made by a wheezy hand-organ; the music fell upon their ears in this way:
Tiddle-widdle-iddle oom pom-pom!
Oom, pom-pom! oom, pom-pom!
Tiddle-tiddle-tiddle oom pom-pom!
Oom, pom-pom--pah!
"What is it, a band or a mouth-organ?" asked Dorothy.
"Don't know," said Button-Bright.
"Sounds to me like a played-out phonograph," said the shaggy man,
lifting his enormous ears to listen.
"Oh, there just COULDN'T be a funnygraf in Fairyland!" cried Dorothy.
"It's rather pretty, isn't it?" asked Polychrome, trying to dance to
the strains.
Tiddle-widdle-iddle, oom pom-pom,
Oom pom-pom; oom pom-pom!
came the music to their ears, more distinctly as they drew nearer the
house. Presently, they saw a little fat man sitting on a bench before
the door. He wore a red, braided jacket that reached to his waist, a
blue waistcoat, and white trousers with gold stripes down the sides.
On his bald head was perched a little, round, red cap held in place by
a rubber elastic underneath his chin. His face was round, his eyes a
faded blue, and he wore white cotton gloves. The man leaned on a stout
gold-headed cane, bending forward on his seat to watch his visitors
approach.
Singularly enough, the musical sounds they had heard seemed to come
from the inside of the fat man himself; for he was playing no
instrument nor was any to be seen near him.
They came up and stood in a row, staring at him, and he stared back
while the queer sounds came from him as before:
Tiddle-iddle-iddle, oom pom-pom,
Oom, pom-pom; oom pom-pom!
Tiddle-widdle-iddle, oom pom-pom,
Oom, pom-pom--pah!
"Why, he's a reg'lar musicker!" said Button-Bright.
"What's a musicker?" asked Dorothy.
"Him!" said the boy.
Hearing this, the fat man sat up a little stiffer than before, as if he
had received a compliment, and still came the sounds:
Tiddle-widdle-iddle, oom pom-pom,
Oom pom-pom, oom--
"Stop it!" cried the shaggy man, earnestly. "Stop that dreadful noise."
The fat man looked at him sadly and began his reply. When he spoke the
music changed and the words seemed to accompany the notes. He said--or
rather sang:
It isn't a noise that you hear,
But Music, harmonic and clear.
My breath makes me play
Like an organ, all day--
That bass note is in my left ear.
"How funny!" exclaimed Dorothy; "he says his breath makes the music."
"That's all nonsense," declared the shaggy man; but now the music began
again, and they all listened carefully.
My lungs are full of reeds like those
In organs, therefore I suppose,
If I breathe in or out my nose,
The reeds are bound to play.
So as I breathe to live, you know,
I squeeze out music as I go;
I'm very sorry this is so--
Forgive my piping, pray!
"Poor man," said Polychrome; "he can't help it. What a great
misfortune it is!"
"Yes," replied the shaggy man; "we are only obliged to hear this music
a short time, until we leave him and go away; but the poor fellow must
listen to himself as long as he lives, and that is enough to drive him
crazy. Don't you think so?"
"Don't know," said Button-Bright. Toto said, "Bow-wow!" and the others
laughed.
"Perhaps that's why he lives all alone," suggested Dorothy.
"Yes; if he had neighbors, they might do him an injury," responded the
shaggy man.
All this while the little fat musicker was breathing the notes:
Tiddle-tiddle-iddle, oom, pom-pom,
and they had to speak loud in order to hear themselves. The shaggy man
said:
"Who are you, sir?"
The reply came in the shape of this sing-song:
I'm Allegro da Capo, a very famous man;
Just find another, high or low, to match me if you can.
Some people try, but can't, to play
And have to practice every day;
But I've been musical always, since first my life began.
"Why, I b'lieve he's proud of it," exclaimed Dorothy; "and seems to me
I've heard worse music than he makes."
"Where?" asked Button-Bright.
"I've forgotten, just now. But Mr. Da Capo is certainly a strange
person--isn't he?--and p'r'aps he's the only one of his kind in all the
world."
This praise seemed to please the little fat musicker, for he swelled
out his chest, looked important and sang as follows:
I wear no band around me,
And yet I am a band!
I do not strain to make my strains
But, on the other hand,
My toot is always destitute
Of flats or other errors;
To see sharp and be natural are
For me but minor terrors.
"I don't quite understand that," said Polychrome, with a puzzled look;
"but perhaps it's because I'm accustomed only to the music of the
spheres."
"What's that?" asked Button-Bright.
"Oh, Polly means the atmosphere and hemisphere, I s'pose," explained
Dorothy.
"Oh," said Button-Bright.
"Bow-wow!" said Toto.