We left notes and all we could think of that he might need , and slipped away before he came . Bess really seemed relieved ; I 'm sure I was ' ; and Mrs Amy smoothed an anxious line out of her white forehead , as she smiled at her daughter , laughing happily among her cousins . Mrs Jo shook her head as if the silver lining of that cloud was hard to find ; but she had no time to croak again , for just then Mr Laurie came in looking well pleased at something . ' A new picture has arrived ; face towards the music-room , good people , and tell me how you like it . I call it `` Only a fiddler '' , after Andersen 's story . What name will you give it ? ' As he spoke he threw open the wide doors , and just beyond they saw a young man standing , with a beaming face , and a violin in his hand . There was no doubt about the name to this picture , and with the cry ` Nat ! Nat ! ' there was a general uprising . But Daisy reached him first , and seemed to have lost her usual composure somewhere on the way , for she clung to him , sobbing with the shock of a surprise and joy too great for her to bear quietly . Everything was settled by that tearful and tender embrace , for , though Mrs Meg speedily detached her daughter , it was only to take her place ; while Demi shook Nat 's hand with brotherly warmth , and Josie danced round them like Macbeth 's three witches in one , chanting in her most tragic tones : ` Chirper thou wast ; second violin thou art ; first thou shalt be . Hail , all hail ! ' This caused a laugh , and made things gay and comfortable at once . Then the usual fire of questions and answers began , to be kept up briskly while the boys admired Nat 's blond beard and foreign clothes , the girls his improved appearance -- for he was ruddy with good English beef and beer , and fresh with the sea-breezes which had blown him swiftly home -- and the older folk rejoiced over his prospects . Of course all wanted to hear him play ; and when tongues tired , he gladly did his best for them , surprising the most critical by his progress in music even more than by the energy and self-possession which made a new man of bashful Nat . By and by when the violin -- that most human of all instruments -- had sung to them the loveliest songs without words , he said , looking about him at these old friends with what Mr Bhaer called a ` feeling-full ' expression of happiness and content : ` Now let me play something that you will all remember though you wo n't love it as I do ' ; and standing in the attitude which Ole Bull has immortalized , he played the street melody he gave them the first night he came to Plumfield . They remembered it , and joined in the plaintive chorus , which fitly expressed his own emotions : ` Oh my heart is sad and weary Everywhere I roam , Longing for the old plantation And for the old folks at home . ' ` Now I feel better , ' said Mrs Jo , as they all trooped down the hill soon after . ` Some of our boys are failures , but I think this one is going to be a success , and patient Daisy a happy girl at last .
XXXXX is your work , Fritz , and I congratulate you heartily . '
Amy Bhaer Daisy Jo Laurie Macbeth Nat Plumfield fire self-possession