He looked more cheerful too as I said it, and says he “You may be thankful enough that you haint. There haint no music in ’em at all; hear that,” says he, goin’ up and strikin’ the very top note. It did sound flat enough.
Says I, “There must be more music in it than that, though I haint no judge at all.”
“Well, hear that, then,” and he went and struck the very bottom note. “You see just what it is, from top to bottom. But it haint its total lack of music that makes me despise pianos so, it is because they are so dangerous.”
“Yes, in thunder storms, you see;” says he, liftin’ up the cover, “here it is all wire, enough for fifty lightnin’ rods—draw the lightnin’ right into the room. Awful dangerous! No money would tempt me to have one in my house with my wife and daughter. I shouldn’t sleep a wink thinkin’ I had exposed ’em to such danger.”
“Good land!” says I, “I never thought on it before.”
“Well, now you _have_ thought of it, you see plainly that a organ is jest what you need. They are full of music, safe, healthy and don’t cost half so much.”
Says I, “A organ was what we had sot our minds on at first.”
“Well, I have got one out here, and I will bring it in.”
“There wont be no need of bringin’ it in at that price,” says I, “for I have heerd Josiah say, that he wouldn’t give a cent over a 100 dollars.”
“Well,” says the feller, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Your countenance looks so kinder natural to me, and I like the looks of the country round here so well, that if your mind is made up on the price you want to pay, I wont let a trifle of 90 dollars part us. You can have it for 100.”
“Well, the end on’t was, he brung it in and sot it up the other end of the parlor, and drove off. And when Josiah come in from his work, and Thomas J. come home from Jonesville, they liked it first rate.”
But the very next day, a new agent come, and he looked awful skairt when he catched sight of that organ, and real mad and indignant too.
“That villain haint been a tryin’ to get one of them organs off onto you, has he?” says he.
“What is the trouble with ’em?” says I, in a awe-struck tone, for he looked bad.
“Why,” says he, “there is a heavy mortgage on every one of his organs. If you bought one of him, and paid for it, it would be liable to be took away from you any minute when you was right in the middle of a tune, leavin’ you a settin’ on the stool; and you would lose every cent of your money.”