The World of Chance by William Dean Howells

The next time Ray came, he found Denton dreamily picking at the strings / of a violin which lay in his lap; the twins were clinging to his knees, / and moving themselves in time to the music. "You didn't know Ansel was a / musician? " his wife said. "He's just got a new violin -- or rather it's a / second-hand one; but it's splendid, and he got it so cheap."

"I profited by another man's misfortune," said Denton. "That's the way / we get things cheap."

"Oh, well, never mind about that, now. Play the ‘Darky's Dream,' won't / you, Ansel? I wish we had our old ferry-boat darky here to whistle!"

After a moment in which he seemed not to have noticed her, he put the / violin to his chin, and began the wild, tender strain of the piece. It / seemed to make the little ones drunk with delight. They swayed / themselves to and fro, holding by their father's knees, and he looked / down softly into their uplifted faces. When he stopped playing, their / mother put out her hand toward one of them, but it clung the faster to / its father.

"Let me take your violin a moment," said Ray. He knew the banjo a / little, and now he picked out on the violin an air which one of the / girls in Midland had taught him.

The twins watched him with impatient rejection; and they were not easy / till their father had the violin back. Denton took them up one on each / knee, and let them claw at it between them; they looked into his face / for the effect on him as they lifted themselves and beat the strings. / After a while Peace rose and tried to take it from them, for their / father seemed to have forgotten what they were doing; but they stormed / at her, in their baby way, by the impulse that seemed common to them, / and screamed out their shrill protest against her interference.

"Let them alone," said their father, gently, and she desisted.

"You'll spoil those children, Ansel," said his wife, "letting them have / their own way so. The first thing you know, they'll grow up / capitalists."

He had been looking down at them with dreamy melancholy, but he began to / laugh helplessly, and he kept on till she said:

"I think it's getting to be rather out of proportion to the joke; don't / you, Mr. Ray? Not that Ansel laughs too much, as a rule."

Denton rose, when the children let the violin slip to the floor at last, / and improvised the figure of a dance with them on his shoulders, and let / himself go in fantastic capers, while he kept a visage of perfect / seriousness.

Hughes was drawn by the noise, and put his head into the room.

"We've got the old original Ansel back, father! " cried Mrs. Denton, and / she clapped her hands and tried to sing to the dance, but broke down, / and mocked at her own failure.

When Denton stopped breathless, Peace took the children from him, and / carried them away. His wife remained.

"Ansel was brought up among the Shakers; that's the reason he dances so / nicely."

"Oh, was that a Shaker dance? " Ray asked, carelessly.

"No. The Shaker dance is a rite," said Denton, angrily. "You might as / well expect me to burlesque a prayer."

"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Ray. "I'm afraid I don't know much about / it."

But Denton left the room without visible acceptance of his excuse.

"You must be careful how you say anything about the Shakers before / Ansel," his wife explained. "I believe he would be willing to go back to / them now, if he knew what to do with the children and me."