Then, moving around on his seat, like some heroic half-figure bust on its pedestal, he rummaged among the litter of leather and tools at his side, and produced a guitar from its baize bag, also a mouth organ, which by some ingenious wire arrangement he fastened around his neck, so that he might press his lips upon it, leaving his hands free for the guitar.

Then, “Ready?” said he, and, applying himself simultaneously to the guitar and the harmonica, off he started with a quite electrical gusto into a spirited fandango that made the little shop dance and rattle with merriment.  You would have said that a whole orchestra was there, such a volume and variety of musical sound did Billy contrive to evoke from his two instruments.

“There!” he said, with a humorous chuckle, pushing the harmonica aside from his mouth, “what do you think of that for an overture?” He had completely hypnotized us with his infectious high spirits, and we were able to applaud him sincerely, for this lonely cobbler of shoes was evidently a natural well of music, and was, besides, no little of an executant.

“Now I’ll give you an imitation of grand opera,” he said; and then he launched into the drollest burlesque of a fashionable tenor and a prima-donna, as clever as could be.  He was evidently a born mime as well as a musician, and presently delighted us with some farmyard imitations, and one particularly quaint impersonation, “an old lady singing with false teeth,” sent us into fits of laughter.

“You ought to go into vaudeville,” we both said spontaneously, with that vicious modern instinct to put private gifts to professional uses, and then Billy, with shy pride, admitted that he did do a little now and again in a professional way at harvest balls (we thought of Sheldon Center) and the like.

“Perhaps you might like one of my professional letter-heads,” he said, handing us one apiece.  I think probably the reader would like one, too.  You must imagine it in the original, with fancy displayed professional type, regular “artiste” style, and a portrait of Billy, with his two instruments, in one corner.  And “see thou mock him not,” gentle reader!

King of Them All
BILLY WILLIAMS
THE KING OF ALL IMITATORS
Producing in Rapid Succession
A GRAND REPERTOIRE
of Imitations and Impersonations
Consisting of: 

Minstrel Bands, Circus Bands, Killing
Pigs, Cat Greeting Her Kitten, Barn-Yard
of Hens and Roosters, Opera
Singers with Guitar, Whistling with
Guitar, Old Lady Singing with False
Teeth, Cow and Calf, Harmonica with
the Guitar, Arab Song, Trombone Solo
with the Guitar.

Yes!  “See thou mock him not,” gentle reader, for Billy is no subject for any man’s condescension.  We were in his company scarcely an hour, but we went away with a great feeling of respect and tenderness for him, and we hope some day to drop in on him again, and hear his music and his quaint, manly wisdom.