A PIANO IN ARKANSAS. 



We shall never forget the excitement which seized upon 

 the inhabitants of the little village of Hardserabble, as 

 the report spread through the community, that a real 

 piano had actually arrived within its precincts. 



Speculation was afloat as to its appearance and its 

 use. The name was familiar to every body ; but what 

 it precisely meant, no one could tell. That it had legs 

 was certain ; — for a stray volume of some literary tra- 

 veller was one of the most conspicuous works in the float- 

 ing library of Hardserabble ; and said traveller stated, 

 that he had seen a piano somewhere in New England 

 with pantalettes on — also, an old foreign paper was 

 brought forward, in which there was an advertisement 

 headed " Soiree," which informed the '' citizens gene- 

 rally," that Mr. Bobolink would preside at the piano. 



This was presumed by several wiseacres, who had 

 been to a menagerie, to mean, that Mi;. Bobolink stirred 

 the piano up with a long pole, in the same way that the 

 showman did the lions and rhi-no-cerus. 



