Something went wrong. The singing-master stopped his viol, and called
out to the class to stop singing. But the heedless girl had got into
mischief, and could not stop with the rest, or she did not hear, or she
did not wish to. So on she went, all alone, right out, at the top of her
voice:--
'And vie with _Israel_, while he sings,
In notes almost divine!'
"And there she broke down, and sat down, and, graceless hussy as she
was, laughed as if she was mad. The truth was, that 'vying with Israel'
was a byword with us. We were always teasing Sally about her vying with
Israel, as she certainly did, while they sung out of the same book, and
thought a deal more of each other than they did of the music. Everybody
took the joke, and such a time as there was! Prudence Clark, who turned
round and looked at me in meeting to-day, she laughed the most
spitefully of anybody, for she had a great notion of your fath--I mean
of Israel. As to Israel and Sarah, if ever you did see two persons who
did not know whether to stand still or to run, to cry or to laugh, they
were the couple. The master, he tried to read us a solemn lecture; but
he was so full of suppressed fun that he hugged his viol under his arm
till one of the strings snapped.
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