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'It was that night when we got to Goring, he reminded me, 'when we went down to Henley in that double-sculler at the end of our first summer term 1888, the first week in July. There was a village fair on that night, and we rode round on the horses, ever so many pennyworths. That was the tune I remembered best of all the tunes that the steam-organ played.
Lingnam changed gears, and she hoisted herself up to a joyous Youp-i-addy-i-ay! from the steam-organ. As we topped the arch we saw a Foresters' band with banners marching down the street. 'That's all very fine, said the Agent-General, 'but in real life things have a knack of happening without approaching We dipped over the bridge into the village.
Look! She swung her lantern to show a front rank of old apple-trees reflected in still, out-lying waters beyond the half-drowned hedge. They could hear above the thud-thud of the gorged floodgates, shrieks in two keys as monotonous as a steam-organ. 'The high one's the pig. Miss Sperrit laughed. 'All right! I'll get her out. You stay where you are, and I'll see you home afterwards.
"Well, that was worth waiting some day or two to see," said Oscar, drawing a long breath. "Just listen to that snorting calliope, playing 'Home, Sweet Home' as they go prancing down the Big Muddy. I shall never forget her playing that 'Out of the Wilderness' as she tore out of those shoals. It's a pretty good tune, after all, and the steam-organ is not so bad now that you hear it at a distance."
I could imagine but one improvement to our equipage, that a steam-organ attached to it should have played, very softly, Felicien David's lovely level music of "The Desert," as we bowled along.
"Dry up, Mahdi, an' get on your perch," cried Madame Thunder, "The Professor's openin' up." The door was opened, and the Marvels heard Professor Thunder declaiming on the astonishing quality of his exhibits. "Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!" exclaimed the professor in his deep, steam-organ tones.
"She's moving!" excitedly cried Oscar, pointing his finger at the "War Eagle"; and, as he spoke, that steamer slid slowly off the sand-bar, and with her steam-organ playing triumphantly "Oh, aren't you glad you're out of the Wilderness!" a well-known air in those days, she steamed steadily down stream.
There were no photographic studios and no cocoanut-shies, for these things had not been thought of; and to us moderns the fair, despite its uncontrolled exuberance of revelry, would have seemed strangely quiet, since neither steam-organ nor hooter nor hurdy-gurdy was there to overwhelm the ear with crashing waves of gigantic sound.
"It's what they call an investment," he said, when Kathleen said something about extravagance. "We shall all need special nourishing to keep our strength up, especially the bold conjurer." They ate and drank. It was a very beautiful meal, and the far-off music of the steam-organ added the last touch of festivity to the scene.
Don't you remember? And strange to say, I did. He played the game with the organizer, rapt though he was by his memory of the steam-organ, I will say that much for him. He took the trouble to go all the way up to Salisbury, and to beg him to have him excused. And he was successful. I don't quite know what excuse he gave.
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