Making up his mind to it was a slow and difficult process . But when Ted was finally dressed in his shabby , `` skimpy '' Sunday best , he tucked his precious fiddle under his arm and slipped downstairs . `` Please , I think I 'll go and stay with Jimmy , '' he said to Mrs. Jackson timidly , as he always spoke to her . `` Well , if you 're to waste the afternoon , I s ` pose it 's better to waste it that way than in going to a picnic and eating yourself sick , '' was Mrs. Jackson 's ungracious response . Ted reached Mrs. Ross 's little house just as that good lady was locking the door on Jimmy and the cat . `` Well , I 'm real glad , '' she said , when Ted told her he had come to stay . `` I 'd have worried most awful if I 'd had to leave Jimmy all alone . He 's crying in there this minute . Come now , Jimmy , dry up . Here 's Ted come to stop with you after all , and he 's brought his fiddle , too . '' Jimmy 's tears were soon dried , and he welcomed Ted joyfully . `` I 've been thinking awful long to hear you fiddling , '' said Jimmy , with a sigh of content . `` Seems like the ache ai n't never half so bad when I 'm listening to music -- and when it 's your music , I forget there 's any ache at all . '' Ted took his violin and began to play . After all , it was almost as good as a picnic to have a whole afternoon for his music . The stuffy little room , with its dingy plaster and shabby furniture , was filled with wonderful harmonies . Once he began , Ted could play for hours at a stretch and never be conscious of fatigue . Jimmy lay and listened in rapturous content while Ted 's violin sang and laughed and dreamed and rippled . There was another listener besides Jimmy . Outside , on the red sandstone doorstep , a man was sitting -- a tall , well-dressed man with a pale , beautiful face and long , supple white hands .
Motionless , he sat there and listened XXXXX the music until at last it stopped .
After as at if like of to under while with