Those musicians and music-lovers who haven't read this "sketch" of Twain's (from The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches) already, simply must do so: "A Touching Story of George Washington's Boyhood" [which has nothing at all to do with Washington!]

To entice you to read the whole thing, I offer a brief excerpt: "I have learned that there lies dormant in the souls of all men a penchant for some particular musical instrument, and an unsuspected yearning to learn to play on it, that are bound to wake up and demand attention some day. Therefore, you who rail at such as disturb your slumbers with unsuccessful and demoralizing attempts to subjugate a fiddle, beware! for sooner or later your own time will come."