United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
The Eubanks home that evening was said by a subsequent _Argus_ to have
been "ablaze with lights" and "its handsome and spacious parlors
thronged with the elite of the town who had gathered to do honor to the
noted guest of the evening."
There first occurred a piano duet, rendered expertly by the two younger
Misses Eubanks, "Listen to the Mocking Bird," with some bewildering
variations of an imitative value, done by the Miss Eubanks seated at the
right.
Then the front parlor was darkened and, after the consequent tittering
among the younger set had died away, Eustace threw his pictures upon a
hanging sheet and delivered his agreeable lecture about them, beginning
with the exciting trip from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Most of those present
had enjoyed the privilege of this lecture enough times to know what
picture was coming next and what Eustace would say about it. But it was
thought graceful now, considering the presence of a stranger, to
simulate the expectancy of the uninformed, and to emit little gasps of
astonished delight when Eustace would say, "Passing from the city gates,
we next come upon a view that is well worthy a moment of our attention."
With the lights up again, a small flask of water from the river Jordan
was handed about, to be examined, by those who knew it too well, in the
same loyal spirit of curiosity. A guest would hold it reverently a
moment, then glance up in search of some one to whom it might be
heartily extended.
This over, the elder Miss Eubanks--Marcella of the severe mien--sang
interestingly, "I gathered Shells upon the Shore," and for an encore, in
response to eager demands, "Comin' thro' the Rye." Not coyly did she
give this, with inciting, blushing implications, but rather with an
unbending, disapproving sternness, as if with intent to divert the minds
of her listeners from the song's frank ribaldry to its purely musical
values.
Eustace followed with a solo:--
"Nigh to a grave that was newly made,
Leaned a sexton old on his earth-worn spade."
In the very low parts, where the sexton old is required to say, "I
gather them in," he was most effective, and many of his more susceptible
hearers shuddered. For an encore he sang, "I am the old Turnkey," which
goes lower and lower with deliberate steps until it descends to
incredible depths of bassness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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