Page:Erewhon-1872-003.djvu/79

a small flute; and being a tolerable player, amused myself at times with playing snatches from operas, and airs such as “Oh where and oh where,” and “Home, sweet home.” This was of great advantage to me, for the people of the country were ignorant of the diatonic scale, and could hardly believe their ears on hearing some of our most common melodies. Often, too, they would make me sing; and I could at any time make Yram’s eyes swim with tears by singing “Lascia ch’io Pianga,” “Verdi Prati,” “Oh Placido il mare,” or “Se non ho l’idol mio;” or as much of them as I could remember.

I had one or two discussions with them, because I never would sing on Sunday (of which I kept count in my pocket-book), except chants and hymn tunes, of which I regret to say that I had forgotten the words, so that I could only sing the tune. They appeared to have little or no religious feeling, and to have never so much as heard of the divine institution of the Sabbath; so they ascribed my unwillingness to profane it to a fit of sulkiness, to which they observed me liable on one day in seven. But they were very tolerant, and one of them said to me quite kindly, that she knew how impossible it was to help being sulky at times, only she thought I ought to see some one if it became more serious—a remark which I then failed to understand, though I pretended to take it quite as a matter of course.

Once only, did Yram treat me in a way that was unkind and unreasonable,—at least, so I thought it at the time. It happened thus. I had been playing fives in the garden and got much heated. Although the weather was cold and frosty, I had played