Page:The Country Boy.djvu/55

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drew pictures and took music lessons, while the other boys worked, and because Father was so well educated and I was foot in the class and still taller than the rest in the same class; but they never took into account that regardless of height we were of the same age. Finally “Aunty” McMillan got up a musical concert by her pupils, the proceeds to go to buy a new organ for the church. She played the old organ in the church; she could do that, as it was slow time and plain music. I was to play first in the big musical. I came first on the program, and there’s where the error of her life was made, as in coming to the Town Hall after milking the cows I got the numbers that she had put on my nails late in the afternoon wet, and they had blurred and slipped, and I didn’t notice it until she led me out and seated me; then she backed into the wings and spoke in low tone, “Watch your nails carefully.” It was the first public appearance I ever made. Naturally, a fellow gets a little rattled, and when I looked at my hands, the numbers were most all gone. She yelled, “Look at your nails,” so I finally said, “My numbers have slipped,” and the audience in general, and my